24/10/2024
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has issued today its annual European Common Enforcement Priorities (ECEP) Statement for 2024 corporate reporting.
ESMA and European enforcers will focus in 2025 on the following topics:
- International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) financial statements: liquidity considerations and accounting policies; judgements, and significant estimates.
- Sustainability statements: materiality considerations in reporting under the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS); scope and structure of the sustainability statements; and disclosures related to Article 8 of the Taxonomy Regulation.
- European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) digital reporting: common filing errors found in the Statement of Financial Position.
The ECEP statement highlights the importance of connectivity between financial and non-financial information and its other recent publications From “black box” to “open book”? Evidence from the first application of IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts, Clearing the smog: Accounting for Carbon Allowances in Financial Statements, Off to a good start: first application of ESRS by large issuers and ESEF reporting manual.
Next steps
The ECEP sets out the expectations of ESMA and National Competent Authorities (NCAs) regarding the specific areas of focus for the enforcement and supervision of the annual financial reports of issuers of securities admitted to trading on European Economic Area (EEA) regulated markets.
Issuers, auditors, and supervisory bodies should consider the topics and detailed recommendations included in this document when preparing, auditing, and supervising the 2024 annual financial reports. These recommendations should be contemplated by issuers considering materiality and relevance for the issuer’s operations and annual financial report.