Overall, ESMA found that, while national regulators were in general sufficiently resourced and approved prospectuses within legal deadlines, there were differences in national practices which would benefit from greater convergence.
Steven Maijoor, ESMA Chair, said: “The Prospectus Directive is an important pillar of the single financial market: it helps firms access capital markets across the EU by setting a common format and content for prospectuses and introducing an EU-wide passport.
ESMA has assessed how the EU’s single rulebook on prospectuses is applied in practice by national regulators as part of our supervisory convergence work. The findings of this peer review will help us identify practices which could benefit from further harmonisation to help deliver a truly single market.”