The new regulatory and capital rules, made up of a Regulation (CRR) and CRD, was adopted on 26 June 2013, for application from 1 January 2014.

The CRD governs access to the activity of credit institutions and requirements for the supervision of institutions, including provisions on corporate governance.

Article 89 of the CRD requires the public disclosure, on a country-by-country basis, of specific information relating to their businesses, including tax disclosure worldwide. It also says that the information disclosed is to be audited.

The purpose of the consultation is to obtain information and views from stakeholders on the potential economic consequences of country-by-country reporting by institutions required under Article 89 CRD.

It covers questions about the potential economic consequences and compliance costs of the disclosure requirements on their profit and loss before tax, tax on profit or loss and public subsidies received, with the aim of highlighting the effects on competitiveness, investment and credit availability and the stability of the financial system.

The responses will be taken into account by the EC when producing its assessment and report required under CRD.

In addition to the EC analysis and survey, PwC has been commissioned to produce a separate report into the economic consequences of the reporting scheme and is due to report later in 2014.

Barclays was the first UK based financial institution to publish a detailed country-by-country tax report setting out its tax policy and tax payments across jurisdictions.

The EC consultation document is available at http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2014/country-by-country-crd4/docs/consultation-document_en.pdf.

The online questionnaires for various categories of respondents can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2014/country-by-country-crd4/index_en.htm