Issuers, as well as any person acting on their behalf or on their account, must draw up and maintain an updated insider list if they possess inside information that directly concerns them. The list must be drawn up in a precise format and include all persons who have access to inside information and who are working for the issuer under an employment contract, or who otherwise perform tasks granting them access to inside information, such as advisers and accountants.
Under the EU Listing Act, the EU legislator decided to simplify the content and format of insider lists.
Further to this, the European Commission adopted a new Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1291 on 12 June 2026 establishing new templates, based on ESMA’s draft implementing technical standards of 21 October 2025.
The new implementing regulation first clarifies the following elements:
- Where third party service providers have access to inside information, issuers must include the details of only one natural person acting as a contact person for the external provider. However, this is without prejudice to the third-party service providers' obligation to prepare their own insider lists of persons working for them who have had access to inside information relating to the issuer.
- In order to reduce the burden on issuers, it remains possible to list those persons who always have access to all inside information in a separate permanent section of the insider list. These “permanent insiders” do not need to be added to the event-based list.
- Issuers must delete the personal data relating to persons included on their insider lists five years after such persons ceased to be on an insider list.
Under the new implementing regulation, the following three templates (instead of the previous five) must be used:
- The first template is for the event-based section of insider lists. Compared to the current template, it no longer includes the following personal information: (i) surname(s) at birth (if different), (ii) company name and address of the insider, (iii) personal telephone number, and (iv) full home address. Issuers should include the insider’s National Identification Number and only where this is not applicable, their date of birth (i.e. issuers are no longer required to report both).
- The second template is for the permanent section of insider lists. Compared to the current template, it no longer requires the following personal information: (i) surname(s) at birth (if different), (ii) personal telephone number, and (iii) full home address. Here as well, issuers should include the insider’s National Identification Number and only where this is not applicable, their date of birth.
- The third simplified template is specifically designed for SME growth market issuers (in Member States such as Belgium that have not opted out of the simplified regime). It includes only persons who have regular access to inside information. By way of derogation, persons who always have access to all inside information may be listed separately in a permanent insiders' section of the insider list, which must be prepared in accordance with the second template. Also, this template no longer requires the following personal data: (i) surname(s) at birth (if different), (ii) personal telephone number, and (iii) full home address. As in the previous templates, issuers should include the insider’s National Identification Number and only where this is not applicable, their date of birth.
The new implementing regulation will enter into force on 5 July 2026. Therefore, issuers should update their current insider lists (if any) and use the new templates for future insider lists.
