On 12 October 2015, the Ministry of Finance published a consultation document containing proposals for new provisions for Legislative Decree n. 58 of 24 February 1998 (the Consolidated Law on Finance) which implement the revised Transparency Directive.

Amongst the most significant changes to the current transparency regime on which the Ministry of Finance seeks responses from market operators are:

• an increase to the shareholding threshold in a listed company (from 2% to 3%), which would trigger notification obligations to the Italian regulator, the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) and to the company itself;
• listed entities will no longer be required to provide CONSOB with quarterly management reports, but the regulator will be granted the power to request that certain financial information be published more frequently than under the current regime; and
• increased sanctions for non-compliance with the requirements to provide company information.

The consultation closes on 27 October 2015.

Please see the website of the Ministry of Finance (Italian only):

http://www.dt.tesoro.it/it/consultazioni_pubbliche/consultazione_transparency_directive.html