Romanian Financial Services Authority issues guidance on reporting during state of emergency

The Romanian Financial Services Authority (the “FSA”) has issued guidance with respect to reporting and communicating with the regulator during the state of emergency. As we have previously reported (here) Romania is currently in a ‘state of emergency’ due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The state of emergency shall last for 30 days as from 16 March 2020.

In this context, the FSA has issued Instruction no. 1/2020 regulating how correspondence, reports, information and other documents shall be communicated to the FSA during this period by entities authorised, regulated or supervised by the FSA. As such, during this period, all correspondence, reports and other documents may be communicated in electronic format only, as follows: (a) for the sender, by using the official email address of the entity or the email address of the legal representative of the entity, or – as applicable – the email address of the individual; (b) for the FSA: by using [email protected]. For reports due under the insurance legislation, the ASF- EWS or e-HUB applications will be used, as the case may be. Reporting under capital markets legislation shall be done through the platforms/applications provided by law. All documentation sent electronically to the FSA shall be kept at the headquarters of the entity, and shall be made available upon FSA request whenever necessary.

Please note that the legal terms and deadlines for reporting and other communication with the FSA have not been suspended or extended during the state of emergency – entities authorised, regulator or supervised by the FSA shall continue to abide by the existing deadlines in force. In this context, we note that EIOPA had recently recommended that “In order to offer operational relief in reaction to coronavirus, national competent authorities (NCAs) should be flexible regarding the timing of supervisory reporting and public disclosure regarding end 2019” (see here).

For more information on the above, please contact Cristina Popescu.