IReF: Implementation Plan Postponed to Mid‑2026

After several weeks of delay, there is at least now some clarity: the publication of a detailed implementation plan for IReF has been pushed back to mid‑2026. The ECB had originally announced this plan—following the overall postponement of IReF to 2029 – for the end of 2025. During an ECB conference, further details on the delay were made public for the first time.

What are the reasons for the postponement?

The justification provided by the supervisory authority is particularly interesting. The ECB primarily points to geopolitical risks and Europe’s digital sovereignty. According to the ECB, it is examining whether the introduction of the Integrated Reporting Framework – as a milestone toward an even more comprehensive Integrated Reporting System (IRS) – should be accompanied by greater technological independence in Europe.

To do this, the supervisor needs more time. For example, to evaluate sovereign cloud‑hosting solutions. However, no further details were provided. It therefore remains unclear whether this mainly concerns changes to the technological infrastructure of the supervisory authority itself, or whether banks will be required to meet new technical minimum standards.

In this context, the ECB again emphasized the long‑term nature of the Integrated Reporting Framework: from the outset, the goal is to avoid technical flaws in the conception and infrastructure that could otherwise lead to significant sunk costs down the line. We recently discussed the risk of such path dependencies in the IReF design – particularly with regard to the long‑term target picture of an IRS – on BANKING.VISION.

What impact does the postponement have on the IReF timeline?

The productive go‑live of the Integrated Reporting Framework (Q4/2029), as well as the preceding pilot phase (Q4/2028), have not officially changed. For banks, however, this implies that the implementation period with fully known requirements becomes significantly shorter.

A delay of the implementation plan by half a year also implies a corresponding delay in the IReF regulation, i.e., the specific supervisory requirements. If the draft of this regulation will only be published by the end of 2026, banks would have only about two years left until the pilot phase begins.

This is not enough time to address the challenges associated with IReF. We therefore continue to recommend that institutions engage with the Integrated Reporting Framework at an early stage. You can find specific recommendations for action in this article.