The Council today reached an agreement on a proposal to simplify certain reporting requirements in the field of financial services and investment support.
The proposal updates existing rules on data sharing between the European Supervisory authorities (ESAs) and other financial sector authorities with the aim to reduce administrative burden for authorities in the financial sector.
With this negotiating mandate, the Council is ready to engage in negotiations with the European Parliament on the final shape of the legislation.
Streamlined reporting requirements
The main aim of the proposal is to facilitate data sharing between European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) and other financial sector authorities, and restrain new reporting requirements.
This aims to promote a more efficient collection of data and avoid double reporting with a direct benefit to European and national authorities and an indirect benefit for those financial sector entities having to provide information.
The proposal also aims to reduce the frequency of reporting for InvestEU implementing partners from every 6 months to once a year for most elements of the reporting requirements.
This will lower the administrative burden on implementing partners, and therefore indirectly on businesses and SMEs.
Main changes brought by the Council
In its mandate, the Council supports the underlying objectives of the proposal. It agrees with the measures to streamline reporting and data sharing for public sector authorities.
Regarding the scope, the Council clarified that the exchange of information should lie with the ESAs and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), which should share the information received from the national competent authorities with other ESAs and Union and national authorities and that it should concern only data stemming from reporting requirements under Union not national law. The proposed peer reviews on reporting requirements should also be based on data collections stemming from EU law only.
Whereas the Council agreed to include the European Central Bank’s Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Board in the set of authorities that are allowed to issue a request for data sharing, it decided to leave the newly created Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Authority (AMLA) out of the scope of the regulation at this stage and to reevaluate its inclusion within 2 years after the entry into force of the regulation.
The Council agreed that authorities may decide at their own discretion to grant access to information to the Commission and to third parties such as financial institutions, researchers, and other entities with a legitimate interest, provided that specific conditions are met to safeguard this data.
Next steps
The European Parliament adopted its negotiating mandate on 12 March 2024. Today’s agreement paves the way to interinstitutional negotiations in view of reaching an agreement on the final shape of the text. Once an agreement is reached, it would have to be formally adopted by both institutions before becoming law.
Background
The Commission submitted a proposal on 17 October 2023 for a Regulation amending Regulations (EU) No 1092/2010, (EU) No 1093/2010, (EU) No 1094/2010, (EU) No 1095/2010 and (EU) 2021/523 as regards certain reporting requirements in the fields of financial services and investment support.
