Covid-19: Flexibility regarding reporting for banks and financial service providers

In its Communiqué of 23 March 2020  on the subject of regulatory reporting in the context of the COVID-19 crisis the CSSF asks supervised entities to perform their regulatory reporting when it is due but also offers some leniency. 

• In general

The CSSF indicates that if for operational reasons supervised entities experience difficulties in preparing or validating their CSSF reporting due to staff not being available, for example because they work remotely without having full access to all systems, they should contact it through their usual channels as soon as possible and ahead of reporting deadlines. The CSSF also says that during the COVID-19 crisis it will not apply a strict enforcement policy with regard to reporting if delays are duly justified. It also specifies that the leeway it applies will be closely coordinated with national authorities, the ESAs as well as the European Central Bank. 

The CSSF's FAQ  provides guidance on reporting flexibility granted to banks and other financial service providers. In principle, submission on time of regulatory reports is encouraged but upon reasoned request, the CSSF can grant exceptions to filing deadlines. The FAQ should be referred to for details on which reporting obligations are affected for various players, including banks, payment institutions/electronic money institutions, investments firms, support Persons of the Financial Sector ("PFS"), and specialised PFS.

• Transparency

In a Communiqué of 27 March 2020, the CSSF describes a temporary measure providing flexibility applying to certain reporting deadlines in the Law of 11 January 2008 on transparency requirements for issuers (the “Transparency Law”), by granting issuers an extra two months to make the necessary publications of periodic information. The temporary measure applies to issuers for which Luxembourg is the home Member State pursuant to the Transparency Law for reporting periods ending on 31 December 2019 or after that date but before 1 April 2020. However, the CSSF expects issuers to take all necessary and reasonable measures in order to publish periodic information within, or as near as possible to, the deadlines set by the Transparency Law and that they inform markets and the CSSF of anticipated reporting delays.  The CSSF also reminds issuers and holders of securities to comply with ongoing disclosure requirements in the Transparency Law (such as regarding major holdings or managers' transactions) and in Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 on market abuse (“MAR”), notably regarding inside information. Finally, the CSSF also asks issuers to refer to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)'s Statement of 27 March 2020  on actions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the EU financial markets regarding publication deadlines in the context of the Transparency Directive. 

• SFTR

In a Communiqué of 9 April 2020, the CSSF draws attention to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)'s Statement of 26 March 2020, aimed particularly at credit institutions, regarding the postponement of the reporting obligations related to securities financing transactions under Regulation (EU) 2015/23651 (SFTR) and under Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 (MIFIR). The CSSF indicates that it will not prioritise its supervisory actions towards counterparties, entities responsible for reporting and investment firms in respect of their reporting obligations pursuant to SFTR or MiFIR, regarding (i) SFTs concluded between 13 April 2020 and 13 July 2020, and (ii) SFTs subject to backloading under SFTR. However, it expects relevant entities to be sufficiently prepared ahead of the next phase of the reporting regime, i.e. 13 July 2020, in order to start reporting as of this date.

• Extension of deadlines for disclosing financial statements and other reporting in the financial sector

On 7 May 2020, the Luxembourg Parliament adopted a law extending the deadlines for publishing annual accounts and related reports mentioned in certain specific laws of the financial sector during the state of emergency declared in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, as discussed in our Newsflash on this topic.

This law has to be read in conjunction with the Law of 22 May 2020, which is of a general nature and concerns deadlines for convening annual general meetings and for filing and publishing annual accounts, consolidated accounts as well as related reports for all Luxembourg companies. You can read more on this general law and the interaction between the two laws here.