These Regulations implement in part Article 1(5) of Directive 2013/50/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2013 (OJ L 294/13, 6.11.2013 p.15) (“the 2013 Directive”) which substitutes Article 6 of Directive 2004/109/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of transparency requirements in relation to information about issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market (as amended) (“the 2004 Directive”).

These Regulations modify the definition of “the transparency obligations directive” in section 103(1) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (c.8) (“the Act”) as it applies in section 89C(4)(b) of the Act. The modification will mean that the power of the Financial Conduct Authority (“the FCA”) to make rules for the purposes of Article 6 of the transparency obligations directive is a power to make rules for the purposes of Article 6 of the 2004 Directive as substituted by the 2013 Directive. In practice, this will give the FCA the power to remove from its rules the requirement for share issuers to produce interim management statements or quarterly reports which, following the substitution of Article 6, are no longer required.

These Regulations modify rather than amend the Act because Article 1(5) of the 2013 Directive is being transposed only in part, i.e. to give the FCA power to remove requirements for interim management statements or quarterly reports. New regulations will be needed to amend the Act to transpose the remainder of the 2013 Directive by November 2015, the transposition deadline.

An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on costs of business or the voluntary sector is foreseen. Further information is available from the Market Conduct Team, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ.