UK implementation of the Transparency Directive – implications for issuers

© Clifford Chance LLP 2006, Clifford Chance is a limited liability partnership registered in England & Wales under number OC323571. This article does not necessarily deal with every important topic or cover every aspect of the topics with which it deals. It is not designed to provide legal or other advice. Reproduced with thanks from Clifford Chance LLP. All rights reserved. Authors: Tim Morris and Chris Bates

On 20 January 2007 the Transparency Directive (2004/109/EC) will be implemented in the UK. In November 2006 s1266 of the Companies Act 2006 amended Part 6 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to authorise the Financial Services Authority (FSA), as the UK competent authority, to make rules for the purpose of implementing the Directive. The new rules are called the transparency rules and have been inserted into the FSA’s Disclosure Rules Sourcebook which will be renamed the ‘Disclosure and transparency rules’ or the ‘DTRs’. Retained measures that go beyond the Directive’s minimum requirements will remain in the FSA’s listing rules.