HM Treasury and the FCA have published a joint consultation paper setting out proposed amendments to the Financial Services and Markets Act and to the Disclosure and Transparency Rules in order to implement the directive amending the Transparency Directive.
The UK has already implemented part of the amending directive and this current consultation concerns the implementation of the remaining provisions including:
- The requirement to disclose voting rights arising from holdings of financial instruments that have a similar economic effect to holding shares.
- Extending the deadline to publish half-yearly reports from two months to three months.
- Extending the period of time for which financial reports are publicly available from five years to 10 years.
- Changing the definition of issuer and changing the rules on the home member state.
- Introducing a new exemption from the vote holder notification obligations for voting rights attached to shares that have been acquired for stabilisation purposes.
The FCA is also taking the opportunity to propose other miscellaneous changes to the DTR that it has identified as necessary to improve the current UK regime.
The deadline for responding to the consultation is 20 May 2015.
A copy of the Consultation Paper can be viewed on the FCA website. (PDF)