European Single Access Point (ESAP): EU progress towards data comparability and transparency

Update on progress towards European Single Access Point – European Commission (EC) confirmed that ESAP will be operational by 2024. A truly far-reaching project that is to make companies visible for cross-border investors and strengthen the capital market integration. Company information, including financial, ESG, sustainability reports, product related information in Prospectus, Key Information Documents and other information will together build the company’s profile.  Company data collected by national company registries and other authorities are expected to be shared via APIs. 

As mentioned in the ESAP consultation summary report, what may be expected to boost interoperability are APIs that could enable exactly the same functionalities to be available across the Member States. 

As a single access point for company information ESAP will cover the activities of up to 150,000 companies, among others issuers of securities (including on SME Growth markets), large companies providing sustainability reporting (listed or not), insurance undertakings, credit institutions, funds and fund managers, investment firms, credit rating agencies, auditors, market players such as central securities depositories (CSD) and central clearing counterparties (CCP). 

The platform will be operated by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), with input from other European agencies. 

The availability of digital company data across countries in the EU will be further connected with considerations of machine-readability, data standards and data formats for data reporting and collection to make the data comparable and usable for analytics. Digital financial reporting has been already adopted by ESMA with inline XBRL being chosen as the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF). 

If you would like to learn more about our contributions to ESAP and get in touch with our data standards and interoperability experts, contact us!