UK: Legal Entity Identifiers And Classification Of Regulatory Information For Main Market Companies

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is proposing to add new rules to the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules sourcebook (DTR), in order to comply with regulatory technical standards on the Transparency Directive concerning the European electronic access point (EEAP).

The EEAP is a web portal, accessible through the website of the European Securities and Markets Authority, which is being developed to make available all regulated information filed under the Transparency Directive by companies with shares traded on a regulated market.  Member States must ensure access to their national central storage mechanisms through the EEAP, so that the EEAP can provide access to the regulated information which is stored by these mechanisms.

Users of the EEAP will be able to search the information not only by home Member State but also by the company's legal entity identifier and by the type of regulated information, according to a standard classification scheme.  A company's legal entity identifier is a unique 20 character code, allocated by a Local Operating Unit such as the London Stock Exchange.

The intention is that regulated information which has been filed in the year prior to the EEAP becoming operational will be fully searchable once the EEAP goes live on 1 January 2018.  The FCA therefore needs to start collecting the relevant information from companies when they make announcements.

The new rules in DTR 6.2 will require companies to supply their legal entity identifier and classify regulated information according to the standard classification set out in a new annex to DTR 6 when they file regulated information with the FCA.  If the information falls within more than one class in the annex, all relevant classes must be notified.  A company using a primary information provider, or PIP, to file regulated information with the FCA will need to ensure that the PIP is able to provide the FCA with the required information.

Although the new rules are not yet in force, the FCA is encouraging companies to provide the new information so that the regulated information they are filing will be fully searchable through the EEAP when it becomes operational.

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