Corrigendum - date on the letter of assurance from the Executive Director on p81 had inadvertently been dated 14 June 2017, when the letter was signed on 2 June 2017. The date has been amended accordingly

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its annual report on the enforcement and regulatory activities of accounting enforcers within the European Union (EU) in 2016.

ESMA, in 2016, continued strengthening supervisory convergence in the area of financial reporting, to improve the consistency and quality across the EU. ESMA achieves this through coordinating the national enforcers’ decisions, publishing annual enforcement priorities and publishing statements on areas of focus such as the implementation of the new standards IFRS 9 and IFRS 15.

The report provides an overview of the activities of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the accounting enforcers in the European Economic Area (EEA), hereafter ‘European enforcers’, when examining compliance of financial information provided by issuers with IFRS in 2016. It also provides an overview of the main activities performed at European level, quantitative information on enforcement activities in Europe as well as ESMA’s contribution to the development of the single rulebook in the area of financial reporting. In addition, it also outlines ESMA’s activities for 2017 in the area of corporate reporting following its Supervisory Convergence Work Programme.