ACER has today published this open letter Inside Information disclosure and the use of Inside Information Platforms.  The letter was promised in a previous quarterly newsletter (see here).

Different types of entity are required to disclosure inside information under REMIT Article 4. At present, most do this on a web site, in many cases using a standardised format described in the appropriate Manual of procedures (see here page 30). Others use an Inside Information Platform, which publishes the data in the standardised format. The list of approved platforms can be found here. The publications are intended to be made accessible to a “web feed” so that market participants can easily access and view the data using various tools. Each market participant is required to state the location of publication in their entry in the “CEREMP” centralised database of market participants.

The letter appears to seek to push forward on the market transparency intended to be brought about by REMIT, in several ways:

• Those who use their own web site to publish inside information, which does not have an accompanying web feed (if for example it uses pdf files), are not compliant with REMIT.
• Those who publish the information in “a multitude of company web sites” are unlikely to be compliant.
• ACER are considering making the use of platforms compulsory.

The letter will go some way towards pushing for the ideal situation where all data is published on platforms and made available to web feeds. This would be a valuable development in terms of market transparency.

Other issues around the disclosure of inside information include what should be published. This relates to the definition of what constitutes “inside information” and was referred to in a recent communication by France’s Commission de régulation de l’énergie which reminded the market that “precise” is not the same as “certain” (see here). “Preciseness” is one of the 4 criteria by which a piece of information can be considered “inside”.