The Bombay Stock Exchange (hereinafter referred to as "BSE") through its Circular DCS/COMP/24/2016-17 dated 27/02/20171 took a new step for real time disclosure and dissemination of information by corporates, by placing a new Corporate Announcement Filing System (hereinafter referred to as the 'CAFS') with effect from March 1, 2017. In the view of this circular, a media release by BSE on March 3, 20172 was made to clarify the application of CAFS.
BSE is introducing CAFS which will be operating 24x7 for 365 days to reduce the gap between filing of information by companies and dissemination of information on the exchange website so that real time information is available to investors and media.
For the purpose of making announcements through CAFS, companies are required to register a designated company personnel, who will be authorized to make corporate announcement on behalf of the company. Further, in addition to such designated company personnel, a maximum of 2 additional company personnel may be registered. For this purpose, proper verification of such personnel will be done at the time of registration. For ensuring that no unauthorized personnel has made such announcements, proper verification at the time of filing of all corporate announcements will be done through the generation of a One-time Password (hereinafter referred to as the 'OTP') sent on the Email ID and mobile number of the corporate personnel registered with the exchange. Also, facility of easy tracking of fillings done by the company will be available.
It will also promote Seamless Dissemination of Corporate Announcements submitted by Companies to the Exchange on the Exchange website directly without pre-verification by the Exchange.
The following Corporate Announcement related information will be part of the new information dissemination system in the first phase:-
- Financial Results
- Intimation of Schedule of Analyst/ Institutional Investor Meetings
- Change in Directorate
- Postal Ballot
- Intimation of Extra Ordinary General Meeting
- Press Release / Media Release
- Intimation of Board Meeting
- Outcome of Board Meeting
- Closure of Trading Window
- Change in Credit Rating
- Change of Registrar & Share Transfer Agent (RTA) Information
- Issue and Allotment of securities
- Launch of new product /service
- Regulatory action
- Business Updates
- Change in registered office / contact details.
Filings such as Shareholding Pattern, Corporate Governance Report and Voting Results which are
mandatorily filed through the XBRL mode3 will not be accepted through CAFS in the first phase. Certain other filings pertaining to Prohibition of Insider Trading, Regulations, Mutual Funds and Debt, will also continue to be accepted in the existing mode and will be covered under CAFS at later stage.
This real time information disclosure will help investors in making better decisions and will be a step forward in electronic filing of information.
Footnotes
1 Circular, BSE http://www.bseindia.com/corporates/Displaydata.aspx?Id=4ac1be83-7237-449f-9aae-743438667ea9&Page=cir
2 Media Release, BSE http://www.bseindia.com/markets/marketinfo/DispMediaRels.aspx?page=ada8448e-d9a0-4e7c-bd02- c2baced2fb92
3 XBRL is a data-rich dialect of XML (Extensible Markup Language), the universally preferred language for transmitting information via the Internet. It was developed specifically to communicate information between businesses and other users of financial information, such as analysts, investors and regulators. XBRL provides a common, electronic format for business reporting. It does not change what is being reported. It only changes how it is reported.
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