Luxembourg's financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) has announced that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is seeking volunteers to take part in its field tests with regard to the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF).
ESMA is specifying the electronic format in which annual financial reports from 2020 will have to be prepared. In order to assess whether the draft rules are practicable and to determine to which extent they have to be improved, ESMA is organising field tests with interested stakeholders.
The target group of these field tests are issuers on European regulated markets from all industries preparing IFRS consolidated financial statements in accordance with the Transparency Directive as well as software vendors. The field tests will consist of transforming annual financial reports by issuers to Inline XBRL instance documents, according to ESMA’s draft ESEF specifications.
Participating issuers will receive free support to transform their annual financial report to Inline XBRL. They will thus be able to learn how the Inline XBRL format can be applied. Furthermore, the effort for their first filings, once the preparation of the annual financial report in the European Single Electronic Format becomes mandatory in 2020, will be significantly reduced. Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the specifications of a European Single Electronic Format that better fits their reporting needs.
The deadline for applications is 14 July 2017. The final decision on a participation of stakeholders in the field tests lies with ESMA and will be communicated shortly after the deadline of application. Issuers and software vendors interested in participating in the field tests are invited to contact email: esef@esma.europa.eu.
