Enforcement priorities for 2023 annual reports

On October 25, 2023, ESMA published its enforcement priorities for the 2023 annual financial reports.   

Together with BaFin, as the national enforcement authority, ESMA will devote particular attention to these areas. We therefore recommend that all capital market-oriented companies familiarize themselves promptly with the focus areas and screen their own annual reports for compliance and keep documentation available for a possible audit. 

The focus is on   

  • the effects of climate-related issues and the impact of the macroeconomic environment on the IFRS financial statements, as well as   
  • non-financial reporting, such as the disclosures relating to Art. 8 of the EU Taxonomy, and  
  • the labeling of financial statement disclosures in accordance with the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF). 

As every year, reference is also made to the ESMA Guideline on Alternative Performance Measures (APM), particularly with regard to consistency in the definition and calculation of key figures.  

BaFin also supplemented its national focus at the beginning of December 2023. The focus is on how companies present their business models and management systems in the management report. 

The detailed ESMA statement can be found here.    

The information from BaFin can be found here. 

If you have any questions, please contact our specialists at any time!
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