Disclosure obligations of issuers and major holding notifications
Issuers of securities are regulated parties on the basis of the second paragraph of Article 2 of Act No. 87/1998 on Official Supervision of Financial Activities (Icelandic). They are therefore under the supervision of the Central Bank of Iceland, but not in the same way as entities that carry out licensed activities. The issuance of securities is subject to various legal requirements, which the Central Bank of Iceland monitors to ensure they are fulfilled by the issuers. Laws and regulations also impose various obligations on issuers to ensure the equal treatment of investors and their equal access to information.
Disclosure obligations of the issuer
The issuer of securities must disclose to the public in the European Economic Area regulated information in accordance to provision of Act no. 20/2021 on the disclosure obligations of issuers of securities and disclosure of major holdings. Stakeholders should have equal access to relevant information.
This is, inter alia, information that is included in the issuer's continuous disclosure (e.g. publication of annual accounts, interim financial statements) as well as other information which the issuer must provide and is specified in the Act.
In addition to this, the issuer shall similarly publish notification of major changes in proportions of voting rights, the so-called major holdings notifications. The party that is obliged to notify changes in major holdings must send a notification to the relevant issuer and the Central Bank of Iceland within the specified deadline.
With Act no. 20/2021, the deadlines for sending major holdings notifications were extended. After the change, an investor who is required to notify changes in major holdings should send the issuer a notification as soon as possible, but no later than four business days after the obligation arises. The issuer is required to publish major holdings notification as soon as possible, but no later than three business days after it has received the notification.
Act no. 20/2021 also imposes an obligation on issuers to publish their annual accounts in a single electronic reporting format, cf. Article 6(1) of the Act.
Useful links
- Act no. 20/2021 on the disclosure obligation of issuers of securities and major holdings notification (Icelandic)
- Regulation no. 707/2008 on the provision of information and notification obligations (Icelandic)
- Regulation no. 1162/2010 of the Central Bank of Iceland on what is considered mass media (Icelandic)