So the great day of TOD came and went.

January 20th – earlier this week – was the planned day of implementation of the Transparency Directive. And it duly arrived – more with a whimper than a bang. Many EU countries have yet to begin their implementation of the Directive by establishing their national rules.

So, much of the change is yet to come.

In periodic reporting, which creates major decisions for listed companies in terms of how many reporting events they should have in the year, the majority of issuers – those with calendar year ends – will not be affected until 2008. Which is just as well since there is a marked lack of agreement on what the new calendar should look like.

Transparency Matters is hearing of disagreements in the advice/ requirements of auditors to public companies. Even between partners in the same firms, there is no consistency. Thus those with January 31st year ends will bear the brunt of the decision making, and lead the way.

The jury is also still out on electronic shareholder communications. Reports from the front line show a marked disinclination to rush in to major changes – although in every conversation the word “trees” is mentioned!

One potential area of controversy to come, is in the definition of “pan-European dissemination” and “reaching all investors” and “as close to simultaneously as possible”. Even though these are obligations under the Transparency Directive, no regulator that this blog has seen, has defined this clearly.

In the absence of this clarity, the key service providers have defaulted into 2 groups. The first – which includes PR Newswire my employer – is opting for a wide definition, with distribution to the major financial news services such as Reuters, Bloomberg and others serving the institutional community. In addition, distribution goes to key websites, and financial newspapers accessed by the retail investors in all 27 states of the EU.

The other group is opting for the minimalist approach. Largely this involves just sending news to the key institutional platforms. Now how this can be said to reach all investors (retail and institutional) at the same time beats me. I am not aware of many private investors accessing their news through news services designed for professional investors.

As with all of the Transparency Directive, the decision is left entirely in the hands of the companies and their advisors. They should decide on the route they choose to take.