BaFin approved a total of 1,839 securities prospectuses, registration documents and supplements in 2016. This was a slight increase in the number of approvals compared with the previous year (1,810; see Table 24 "Number of approvals"). There were two cases in which BaFin declined to grant approval.

A decrease can be observed in the number of prospectuses for shares (IPOs and capital increases) and debt securities. After peaking in 2015 (86), the number of share prospectuses (68) dropped below the 2014 level (69).

A slightly positive trend can be observed for derivative products. These prospectuses normally relate to the certificate programmes of large issuers (banks, savings banks), which subsequently also apply to public offers for a 12-month period. The total number of base prospectuses increased and, in line with it, the number of supplements also rose. Most supplements are approved for the base prospectuses of large issuers in order to keep them up to date during the period of validity of the prospectuses. The total number of final terms decreased from 3,436,840 in 2015 to 3,260,884.

Table 24 Number of approvals in 2016 and 2015

Number of approvals in 2016 and 2015

Source: BaFin

The number of notifications BaFin transmitted to other national supervisory authorities under the European Passport continued to rise in 2016 (3,935; previous year: 3,436). This related primarily to prospectuses notified to Austria and Luxembourg. By contrast, the number of notifications received decreased significantly to 849 (previous year: 1,298). At almost 60%, most of them again came from Luxembourg.

The total issue volume in 2016 was 3,260,986, the first slight decline after a series of increases, although it was higher than the 2014 figure (see Figure 16 "Total issue volume").

Figure 16 Total issue volume

Total issue volume

Source: BaFin