Ireland generally supports greater transparency and has made significant efforts since the banking crisis to promote transparency and openness in the banking sector. As President of the Council of the EU, Ireland has worked with other Member States to provide in the Capital Requirements Directive and Regulation (CRD IV/CRR) for appropriate levels of transparency. The text provisionally agreed with the European Parliament on country by country reporting on profit or loss before tax and tax on profit or loss will be considered by Ecofin on Tuesday 5 March.
The CRD IV provisional agreement, subject to technical drafting and agreement at Ecofin, provides for immediate public reporting on the name and geographical location, number of employees per institution and turnover of each institution. Profit or loss before tax, tax on profit or loss and public subsidies received by systemically important institutions will be submitted on a confidential basis to the Commission from 6 months after the date of application of CRD.
The Commission, in consultation with the relevant European Supervisory Authorities, will assess the data received regarding potential negative economic consequences of disclosure of that data (e.g. competitiveness, investment and credit availability and financial stability) and submit a report on the basis of the data by 31 December 2014. If the report identifies significant negative effects, the Commission may propose to modify the reporting obligations. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt a delegated act to defer the disclosure obligation and will publicly declare that this is the case; otherwise there will be country by country reporting on Profit or loss before tax, tax on profit or loss and public subsidies received by financial institutions from 1 January 2015.