Regulation (EU) 2023/2859 (the “ESAP Regulation”) entered into force on 9 January 2024. From 10 July 2026 onwards any person required to make certain information public under the EU Prospectus Regulation must at the same time submit that information to the appointed national collection body designated for the purposes of the ESAP Regulation. Moreover, from 10 July 2026 onwards any person disclosing regulated information under the EU Transparency Directive and / or inside information under the EU Market Abuse Regulation must at the same time submit that information to the appointed national collection body.
What is the European Single Access Point (“ESAP”)?
ESAP introduces a ‘single point of access’ digital platform for public financial, non-financial and sustainability-related information about EU companies and financial products. In-scope information for ESAP is information that is already being made public under a range of EU directives and regulations. Under the ESAP framework, EU entities that are required to report under in-scope EU regulations and directives will have an additional obligation to provide information to their appointed national collection body. This will be done on a phased basis. You can read more about ESAP here.
Has ESAP effect under Irish law?
A technical transposition of ESAP was required under Irish law, and therefore the following statutory instruments (the “Irish ESAP Regulations”) gave effect to ESAP in Ireland:
- European Union (European Single Access Point) Regulations 2026 (S.I. No. 32 of 2026);
- European Union (European Single Access Point) (No. 2) Regulations 2026 (S.I. No. 33 of 2026);
- European Union (European Single Access Point) (No. 3) Regulations 2026 (S.I. No. 34 of 2026); and
- Transparency (Directive 2004/109/EC) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (S.I. No. 312 of 2025).
Amongst other matters, the Irish ESAP Regulations designate the national collection bodies in Ireland – being the Central Bank of Ireland (the “CBI”), the Registrar of Companies, the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority, the Irish Takeover Panel and the Pensions Authority. The CBI is the designated Irish national collection body for the purposes of the EU Prospectus Regulation, the EU Transparency Directive and the EU Market Abuse Regulation.
What does this mean for issuers of debt capital markets transactions?
While in-scope information for ESAP is information that is already being made public, new procedural obligations for in-scope entities apply. In-scope entities include issuers of securities.
In relation to the EU Prospectus Regulation, the EU Transparency Directive and the EU Market Abuse Regulation specifically, the information submitted to the appointed national collection body must be submitted in data extractable format or, where specified, in machine-readable format. Information must be accompanied by prescribed metadata including entity name, legal entity identifier (LEI), size category, industry sector (where applicable), type of information, and whether personal data is included. Therefore issuers required to submit information will need to ensure that their filing processes are updated to accommodate the parallel submission to the national collection body with the requisite metadata and in the prescribed format.
What is the CBI approach to ESAP and the EU Prospectus Regulation?
In order to maintain a secure communication channel for the submission of documents and to facilitate the efficient collection of the prescribed metadata, the CBI intends to launch a Prospectus Portal later this year. From 10 July 2026 onwards and until this Prospectus Portal is launched, the prescribed metadata will be gathered by the CBI from issuers via email and manually uploaded by it to the ESMA register for ESAP.
Contact Us
We are continuing to keep a close eye on developments in this area and will publish further updates as matters progress. For further information on ESAP, please get in touch with Alan Keating, William Foot or your usual Matheson contact.
This article is provided for general information purposes only and does not purport to cover every aspect of the themes and subject matter discussed, nor is it intended to provide, and does not constitute or comprise, legal or any other advice on any particular matter.
