Central Bank of Russia sets out plans for uniform annual report rules for public issuers and digital corporate reporting

The Central Bank of Russia published a post-consultation report setting out initiatives to standardise how public issuers disclose periodic information, aiming to make annual reports more attractive to investors through uniform preparation rules and more investor-relevant content. The proposals follow the public discussion of the consultation paper On Optimising Forms for Disclosing Periodic Information. Planned changes include formal requirements for the structure and content of annual reports, with issuers expected to disclose not only current activities but also plans. Annual reports would include a corporate governance chapter and information on compliance with the principles and recommendations of the Corporate Governance Code, while issuers whose securities are on Level 1 and Level 2 quotation lists would disclose information on compliance with sustainable development goals. The annual report would also incorporate statistical data drawn from financial statements for 6 and 12 months, including general information on activities and data on governing bodies, controlled organisations and shareholders; current changes could be communicated via material fact disclosures to help reduce the overall volume of periodic publications, alongside shorter deadlines for issuing reporting documents. The Central Bank of Russia also intends to begin digitalising corporate reporting in the near future to help reduce the costs of preparing and disclosing it.