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The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) lately released the “Rules No. 38 on Contents and Format of Information Disclosure by Companies Publicly Issuing Securities – Contents and Format of Corporate Bonds’ Annual Report” (the Rules for short). The Rules, with 4 chapters and 51 articles, specifies an array of requirements for the contents and format of corporate bonds’ annual report. Its release is another key measure of the CSRC to carry out the “Management Measures for Issuance and Trading of Corporate Bonds” (the Measures for short), detail relevant regulations on information disclosure, and cement the in-process and aftermath regulation, which is of great significance for propelling the standardized development of the exchange-based corporate bonds market. In response to the implementation of the Rules, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has recently released the “Notice of Doing a Better Job for Disclosing Annual Reports of 2015 for Bond Issuers” (the Notice for short).
Last year, the SSE, taking the promulgation of the Measures as an opportunity, met the requirements for the market-oriented reform in terms of pre-examination, issuance and listing of corporate bonds, and vigorously enhanced the ability of the exchange bond market in serving the real economy. In the whole year of 2015, the SSE’s bond market completed the issuance of RMB1.87 trillion bonds in total, which made it an important channel for enterprises’ directing financing.
In the development of the corporate bonds market, the SSE always adheres to the development philosophy of “stressing both growth and risk control” and attaches great importance to the regulation on continuous information disclosure about corporate bonds. As a supporting system, the Notice puts forward specific requirements for the implementation of the Rules. Firstly, issuers and underwriters are required to study relevant regulations and timely formulate, submit and disclose annual reports. Secondly, specific regulations on the disclosure time and the obligor of annual report’s disclosure are given. Thirdly, issuers are urged to do a better job in their risk alert work of corporate bonds. Fourthly, other issuers publicly issuing corporate credit bonds (including enterprise bonds) should formulate and disclose annual reports pursuant to the Rules.
In the future, the SSE will continuously strengthen the regulation on continuous information disclosure about corporate bonds, study and make supporting systems, further publicize and guide the market, and earnestly carry out the in-process and aftermath regulation. For the issuers of corporate bonds and relevant intermediaries which fail to fulfill the obligations of information disclosure, the SSE will take self-regulatory measures and investigate the relevant obligators according to law.
