Luxembourg Stock Exchange Responses to the Delay in ESEF Application

​The Luxembourg Stock Exchange has issued an announcement in response to the year-long delay in the application of the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) requirements in relation to annual financial reports. 

The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the watchdog responsible for the financial regulation in Luxembourg, has previously announced a delay of 12 months to the application of ESEF requirements to annual financial reports. 

It was initially planned for the ESEF to become a mandatory requirement for all financial reports beginning on 1 January 2020, but now it will come into effect for reports on 1 January 2021.

This means that listed companies now have two options in terms of adopting the ESEF requirements:

· wait to adopt ESEF until the filling of financial reports from 2021 at the beginning of 2022; or

· seize the opportunity to start using ESEF for its 2020/21 reports to ensure they are familiar with the procedures before they become mandatory.

In response to the delay, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, the Luxembourg's Officially Appointed Mechanism (OAM), said that it welcomes this grace period in order to ensure a smooth transition to ESEF. However, the exchange assures those who wish to become an early adopter of ESEF, their systems have been updated and are ready to welcome all financial reports in ESEF before next year's deadline.