Consultation paper on the regulatory technical standards on the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF)

This consultation paper includes an assessment of current electronic reporting; an analysis of the policy objectives included in the transparency Directive and explores ways forward with regards to the establishment of an ESEF by taking into account technical developments in financial markets and telecommunication technologies. Section 3discusses the policy objectives of ESEF. The current practices regarding the publication and filing are described in section 4. Section 5 describes possible options and scenarios to move toward the implementation of electronic reporting in the European Union (EU) and adescription of the various options availablewhile section 6 provides for the preferred option based on the preliminary Cost and Benefit Analysis (CBA) included in Annex III.