ADVANCING INTERNATIONAL ISSUER DOCUMENTATION

The Cyprus Securities Bureau is recommending a couple of improvements to rules pertaining to international private issuers that are intended to enhance the openness of the public capital markets to these issuers, as well as to augment the information that is accessible to investors.

These revisions are part of a cycle of programs that aims to tackle developments in the disclosure and other requirements applicable to international private issuers in light of market developments, new technologies and other matters in a manner that promotes investor protection, cross-­border capital flows and the elimination of unnecessary barriers to our capital markets.

The Cyprus Securities Bureau is recommending enhancements that would enable international issuers to examine their profile to utilize the forms and rules accessible to international private issuers once a year, rather than continuously.

The Cyprus Securities Bureau is also recommending enhancements to distinguish the requirement for annual documentation submitted by international private issuers and to remove an option under which international private issuers are allowed to change fragmented records from their financial documentation, and a change to the policy referring to going private engagements to reflect the new termination of documentation and deregistration rules for international private issuers.

When the Cyprus Securities Bureau adopted the assessment form utilized by international private issuers to register a class of securities under the regulatory compliance law and to register annual documentation, the Cyprus Securities Bureau determined the primary standard that investors should be provisioned with records that is equal to that provisioned by local issuers in the markets.

The intention in implementing the assessment form was to indicate the disclosures required of international private issuers on a more equal level to that necessitated of local issuers. Simultaneously, the Cyprus Securities Bureau recognized that variations in the local laws and accounting standards relevant to international private issuers should be considered when establishing disclosure requirements for international private issuers.

Consequently, the Cyprus Securities Bureau provided certain disclosure adjustments in the assessment form, although it is determined that the examination of the apposite disclosure requirements for international private issuers was part of an ongoing evolutionary process.

In the years that the assessment form has been implemented, there has been a tendency for a better international conformity on the accounting and other non-­financial statement disclosures that should be provisioned by issuers. Previously, the Cyprus Securities Bureau issued policies to allow international private issuers to register financial documentation that match with global standards as well as local formats.

These policies aid the programs to standardize accounting principles. Additionally, through the endeavors of the Cyprus Securities Bureau and regulatory agencies around the globe are ever more entail similar kinds of disclosures in documentation used for public presentations and publications in their many markets.

Recently, the Cyprus Securities Bureau issued relevant documentation protocols that refers to documentation registered by international issuers for public consumption and publication of equity securities. The Cyprus Securities Bureau unambiguously integrated all of the standards, with other agencies also basing their documentation requirements on the same disclosure standards.

All together, the Cyprus Securities Bureau remains completely dedicated to progressing cross-­border capital flows and removing unintended hindrances to capital markets. Previously, the Cyprus Securities Bureau implemented policies that made it straightforward for international private issuers to cease their documentation obligations and deregister their securities.

The Cyprus Securities Bureau implemented these policies out of concern that the challenges and ambiguities linked with ceasing their registration and documentation obligations under the law could serve as a deterrent to international private issuers accessing the public capital markets.

As already mentioned, the Cyprus Securities Bureau implemented policies to allow international private issuers to submit financial documentation that are prepared in accordance with global standards. In the endorsement of the provisions, the Cyprus Securities Bureau also provided various adjustments to international private issuers. For instance, it is allowed for international private issuers to match the necessities cited in their annual management’s documentation on the enterprise’s internal authority over financial documentation and the auditor’s verification on a deferred basis unlike with some local issuers.

International private issuers are also allowed to report variations in their internal controls over financial documentation on a periodic basis, rather than time-­specific as is necessitated of local issuers. Besides, with regard to the audit review compliance, international private issuers listed on exchanges were dealt with specific adjustments that considered global practices and requirements.

As the environment of the international economic markets have advanced, and because of obvious progress in technology with regard to the sourcing and transmittal of information, some of the disclosure accommodations that the Cyprus Securities Bureau provided to international private issuers years ago may no longer be applicable.

Accordingly, the Cyprus Securities Bureau is recommending today revisions to rules and forms that should improve the documentation of information by international private issuers, as well as the timing within which investors can have admittance to such valuable information.

The enhancements proposed keep upright our twofold goals of improving the disclosures that international private issuers provision to investors in the major markets, and developing the prompt openness of public markets to these issuers.