ESMA reports on enforcement activities in Europe

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) recently released its annual report ¹ for 2018, which gives an overview of enforcement activities across Europe. At an aggregate level actions were taken against about a third of around 950 issuers reviewed for material infringements of IFRS, and a further 51 actions in relation to 819 issuers for breaches in compliance of their non-financial information provided on environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters. For the first time, the report includes information about the actions taken against issuers disaggregated by country in order to provide more transparency. This article sets out the key messages on IFRS matters and the issues on other areas will be covered next month.