Uniform rules for issuers’ periodic reporting: Bank of Russia’s initiatives
The Bank of Russia intends to increase the attractiveness of public issuers’ annual reports by setting down uniform rules for their preparation and ensuring that such reports contain as much investor-relevant information as possible. The regulator’s initiatives are set forth in the report following the public discussion of the consultation paper On Optimising Forms for Disclosing Periodic Information.
First of all, there are plans to establish requirements for the structure and content of a company’s key document. In this document, issuers will provide information not only about their current activities but also about their plans. The document will include a chapter on corporate governance as well as on the company's compliance with the principles and recommendations of the Corporate Governance Code. Issuers whose securities are on Level 1 and Level 2 quotation lists will disclose information on their compliance with sustainable development goals.
Annual reports will incorporate statiс data from companies’ financial statements for 6 and 12 months, e.g. general information on activities, data on the members of governing bodies, controlled organisations, shareholders, and other information. Issuers will be able to report about current changes by disclosing material facts. This will help decrease the volume of periodic publications. In addition, the deadlines for issuing reporting documents will be reduced.
In the near future, the Bank of Russia intends to start digitalisation of corporate reporting, which will subsequently help cut costs of its preparation and disclosure.