European Single Electronic Format for Financial Statements

In 2013 the Transparency Directive, which sets rules on harmonisation of transparency requirements of issuers, was amended to include among others a requirement for issuers to prepare their annual financial reports in a single electronic reporting format. ESMA was assigned the responsibility to develop regulatory technical standards (RTS) to specify this electronic reporting format. The objectives of the provision are to make reporting easier for issuers and to facilitate accessibility, analysis and comparability of annual financial reports. The European Single Electronic Format is the electronic reporting format in which issuers on EU regulated markets shall prepare their annual financial reports from 1 January 2020.

XBRL Finland has setup a working group to assist Finnish issuers in the transition to this electronic filing. The working group had its first meeting in February 2018 with an objective to organize a conference late 2018.

ESMA has conducted field tests with a number of filers, below is a link to a video reporting on the outcome of those field tests.