ESAs Set Rules on ESAP to Boost Financial Transparency

The European Banking Authority (EBA), European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), and European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) recently published the Final Report on draft Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) for the European Single Access Point (ESAP). This report outlines the requirements for entities to submit specific financial and sustainability-related information in compliance with the ESAP, aimed at increasing transparency and standardizing access to crucial regulatory information.

The ITS mandates that collection bodies submit data related to Prospectuses and key information disclosures required under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). These include details on sustainability risk policies applied within investment decisions, the adverse impacts at the entity and group levels, and sustainability-related product disclosures. Additionally, entities must report on Product Intervention and Product Rules (PRIIPs) and the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR). For MiCAR compliance, submissions should include a Crypto-asset white paper for assets that are neither e-money tokens (EMT) nor asset-referenced tokens (ART), as well as essential information regarding the issuer of ART/EMT and any relevant crypto-asset service providers.

The standards also establish the acceptable data formats to ensure consistency and accessibility. Article 2, paragraph 1, point (3) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2859 specifies the requirements for “data-extractable” formats, while Article 2, paragraph 1, point (13) of Directive (EU) 2019/1024 clarifies the criteria for “machine-readable” formats. According to these guidelines, HTML, PDF, and txt formats are deemed extractable as long as text within them is accessible for extraction. In contrast, machine-readable formats—such as XBRL, XBRL-XML, XBRL-CSV, and Inline XBRL—are required for their compatibility with software applications that facilitate data identification, recognition, and extraction.

By standardizing submission formats and procedures, the ESAP aims to create a more efficient, transparent, and technologically compatible system for information accessibility across the EU.