EU Transparency Directive Attacked In UK

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

20 June 2003

In a joint paper submitted to the European Union yesterday, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the Association of British Insurers, the Investor Relations Society, and several other UK industry groups launched an attack on the EU's proposed Transparency Directive, arguing that in its current form, it 'won't deliver'.

The Directive calls for mandatory quarterly reporting, and proposes that companies only be permitted to publish price sensitive information on their own websites. Both of these proposals have drawn fire from UK industry leaders.

Speaking to the Times with regard to the proposed reporting requirements, on Thursday, Simon Wilkinson of the LSE observed that: 'The quality, reliability and timeliness of reporting are key, not its frequency.'

He also suggested that the proposal that firms should use their websites to make announcements is impractical.

'Constantly monitoring thousands of individual websites for company news is practically impossible even for global investment banks, let alone the individual private investor,' he suggested.

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