Scope of chapter

This chapter is concerned with the institutional supervision of issuer disclosure within the EU. This issue is important because the credibility of the EU-wide regulatory regime is crucially dependent on whether it is effectively supported by a system of institutional oversight that can deliver consistent standards of supervision across the EU. Fragmented and institutionally diverse oversight arrangements have the potential to undermine the EU securities market integration project. Mixed competencies and different responsibilities amongst oversight bodies are liable to impede the quest for EU-wide consistency in supervision and enforcement. Institutionally diverse organisations are likely to struggle more to find common ground on which to develop shared policies and philosophies than networks comprised of organisations that share basic internal organisational characteristics.

Institutional responsibility for the oversight of issuer disclosure under the Prospectus, Transparency and Market Abuse Directives (‘core’ securities laws disclosures for the purposes of this chapter) has now been concentrated in national securities regulators. These Directives contain provisions that oblige Member States to give their national securities regulators the same minimum set of supervisory and investigatory powers, and they also oblige the regulators to co-operate with each other and to share information. A pan-European network has been put in place to bring national regulators together (the Committee of European Securities Regulators or CESR) and to facilitate the development of common supervisory standards, practices and philosophical approaches.