What is a Universal Registration Document (URD)?

A Universal Registration Document (URD) is a yearly document in which a company listed in the European Union describes itself to investors: its business, risks, governance, financial statements and shareholders. It is most widely used by companies listed in France, where it replaced the “document de référence” in 2019.

Where it comes from

The URD was introduced by the EU Prospectus Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2017/1129, Article 9). A company whose securities trade on a regulated market or a multilateral trading facility may draw one up for each financial year. It is optional, but it makes raising capital quicker: once a company's URD has been approved by its regulator two years in a row, the company becomes a “frequent issuer”. It may then file later URDs without prior approval, and its prospectuses are approved in five working days instead of ten.

What it contains

• the business, markets and strategy;
• the risk factors;
• corporate governance and executive pay;
• the financial statements, with the auditors' reports;
• information on the share capital and the shareholders.

For a company within the scope of the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the sustainability statement is part of the management report, which a URD often includes. See how to find a company's sustainability report.

The URD and the annual financial report

A URD can also serve as the company's annual financial report under the Transparency Directive, if it contains the information that report requires and is published within four months of the year end. That is why many French companies publish no separate annual financial report: it is inside the URD, and a cross-reference table in the URD shows where each required part is.

Where to find one

• on the company's website, usually under “Investors”, “Regulated information” or “Publications”;
• in the national storage of regulated information, which in France is info-financiere.fr;
• on Report Scout, on the company's page and under the Universal Registration Document report type.

Many companies also publish an English translation; the version filed with the regulator is usually in the company's own language. A URD comes out in the spring after the year it covers: a company whose year ends in December typically files its 2025 URD in March or April 2026.

How Report Scout lists them

“Universal Registration Document” is a report type of its own. A company page counts a URD as an annual filing: when it is the only annual document listed, the page says so rather than calling it the annual report. See also annual report vs 10-K.

Examples on Report Scout

Companies whose Universal Registration Documents Report Scout holds, those with the most reports first. Each page lists the documents by year, with links to the originals. All of them: Universal Registration Documents on Report Scout.

• Accor
• Gecina
• Pernod Ricard
• Schneider Electric
• ADP (Aeroports de Paris)
• Air Liquide
• Bureau Veritas
• Danone

More guides

• Annual report vs 10-K: what is the difference?
• How to find a company's sustainability report

How Report Scout finds, checks and dates the reports it lists is described on the methodology page.