Publication
Europe steps up its fight against fraud
European watchdogs have long been focusing on enforcement against corporate crime with a great focus on anti-corruption, economic sanctions and money laundering.
Global | Publication | May 25, 2018
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As part of the European Union’s Capital Markets Union agenda, on May 24, 2018 the European Commission published an initiative aimed at helping smaller European companies access market-based funding more easily and cheaply so that they can expand.
The initiative comprises a legislative proposal to make technical amendments to the Market Abuse Regulation and the Prospectus Regulation, and further technical amendments to delegated acts under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) in relation to SME Growth Markets. These are a category of trading venue created by MiFID II to facilitate access to capital for smaller and medium-sized companies.
So far as the proposed amendments to the Market Abuse Regulation are concerned, these include the following:
As far as the proposed amendments to the Prospectus Regulation are concerned, these will allow issuers with at least three years of listing on SME Growth Markets to produce a lighter prospectus when transferring to a regulated market. The aim of this is to encourage successful companies to transfer from SME Capital Growth Markets to main stock exchanges, thereby benefitting from greater liquidity and a larger investor pool.
The proposals to amend MiFID II are aimed at making it easier for trading venues specialised in the issue of bonds to register as SME Growth Markets. This will be done by setting a new definition of debt-only issuers, being companies that issue less than EUR 50 million of bonds over a 12 month period. SME Growth Markets will also be able to require bond issuers to produce a half-yearly financial report as equity issuers on SME Growth Markets are required to do.
Next steps
The proposal for a regulation amending the Market Abuse Regulation and the Prospectus Regulation will be discussed by the European Parliament and the European Council. The amendments to MiFID II will be published online for a four week consultation, after which they will be adopted by the European Commission and sent to the European Parliament and the European Council for their scrutiny.
Publication
European watchdogs have long been focusing on enforcement against corporate crime with a great focus on anti-corruption, economic sanctions and money laundering.
Publication
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Publication
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