ESMA Publishes XBRL Taxonomy and Conformance Suite to Implement ESEF
ESMA published the 2020 European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) XBRL taxonomy files and an update to the ESEF Conformance Suite to facilitate implementation of the ESEF Regulation. The publication of the ESEF XBRL taxonomy files is accompanied by the publication of a set of documents presenting the architecture and content of the ESEF XBRL taxonomy and providing information about the XBRL features applied. The Conformance Suite describes a set of conformance tests for XBRL processors or software tools to ensure compliance with the requirements of ESEF, as defined in the ESEF Regulation, and with the guidance included in the ESEF Reporting Manual.
The 2020 ESEF taxonomy is based on the 2020 IFRS taxonomy, which is annually prepared and updated by the IFRS Foundation. The taxonomy package includes labels in all EU languages. The ESEF taxonomy includes minimal changes (extensions or customizations) compared to the IFRS taxonomy from the IFRS Foundation. To reflect the principle-based nature of the IFRS standards, ESMA decided to enable preparers to create extensions in a controlled manner. Therefore, contrary to the fixed taxonomies, the ESEF taxonomy is flexible and is intended to be used as a starting point for issuers to create their own taxonomies. The ESEF taxonomy directly imports all FULL IFRS taxonomy elements and links to the references and labels in the English language. However, the IFRS taxonomy presentation, definition, and calculation relationships are customized in the ESEF taxonomy rather than directly imported. The ESEF Regulation requires that issuers identify themselves using the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). Therefore, the XBRL International LEI taxonomy is imported in the ESEF taxonomy to provide the means to report and verify the validity of the LEI used by the issuer to identify itself in the Inline XBRL document.
The ESEF Conformance Suite defines 64 test cases divided into 192 sample XBRL report packages showcasing the expected application of rules and guidance items specified by the ESEF Regulation and the corresponding Reporting Manual. For each test case, there is at least one valid and one invalid sample report. This does not represent all possible scenarios in which a particular aspect could be tested. Moreover, the suite does not cover all requirements of the ESEF because some requirements cannot be automatically verified with the use of software. All tests are provided with a textual description of the tested aspect and the relevant references to the ESEF Regulation or Reporting Manual. Each report package that is part of the suite consists of an Inline XBRL document and the corresponding issuer-specific XBRL taxonomy extension.
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Keywords: Europe, EU, Banking, Insurance, Securities, Taxonomy, ESEF, ESEF Regulation, IFRS Taxonomy, XBRL, XBRL, LEI, Reporting, Conformance Suite, ESMA
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