ESMA consults on accounting enforcement guidelines The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has launched a consultation on Guidelines on the enforcement of financial information published by listed entities in the European Union (EU). The Guidelines aim to strengthen and promote greater supervisory convergence in existing enforcement practices amongst EU national authorities, thereby ensuring the proper and rigorous enforcement of financial information disclosure practices in the EU. The Guidelines establish the principles to be followed in the enforcement process, by clearly defining: • enforcement and its scope; • expected characteristics of the enforcer; • acceptable selection techniques and other aspects of enforcement methodology; • the types of enforcement actions that may be available to enforcers; and • how enforcement activities are coordinated within ESMA. The Guidelines also propose that the coordination of European enforcers by ESMA should involve the development of coordinated views on accounting matters prior to national enforcement actions, the identification of common enforcement priorities and common responses to the accounting standard setter to ensure consistent application of the financial reporting framework. The proposed Guidelines apply to all competent authorities and any other bodies from the EU undertaking enforcement responsibilities under the Transparency Directive, and IFRS Regulation. Steven Maijoor, ESMA Chair, said: “ESMA believes that in order to achieve a proper and rigorous enforcement there is a need for a common EU approach to the enforcement of financial information disclosures. These proposed Guidelines, if applied consistently across the EU, will promote uniform application of the financial reporting standards, help avoid regulatory arbitrage by issuers and promote investor confidence in financial markets.” The closing date for responses to this consultation is 15 October 2013 and ESMA expects to publish the final guidelines in 2014.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued today a consultation paper on draft technical standards implementing the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR), which aims to increase the transparency of shadow banking activities. Securities financing transactions (SFTs) are transactions where securities are used to borrow cash (or other higher investment-grade securities), or vice versa – this includes repurchase transactions, securities lending and sell/buy-back transactions.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has today published a Discussion Paper (DP) regarding the technical implementation of the incoming Benchmarks Regulation (BR). ESMA is seeking stakeholder’s input to inform its future proposals on draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) and Technical Advice (TA) to the European Commission.

Benchmarks are used in financial markets as a reference to price financial instruments and to measure performance of investment funds, as well as being an important element of many financial contracts and their integrity is critical to financial markets and to investors in particular. The BR’s objective is to improve the governance and control over the benchmark process, thereby ensuring their reliability and protecting users. The changes aim to:

• improve the quality of the input data and methodologies used by benchmark administrators;
• ensure that benchmark contributors provide adequate data and are subject to proper controls; and
• ensure the supervision and viability of critical benchmarks.

Steven Maijoor, ESMA Chair, said:

“The Benchmark Regulation, once implemented, will ensure the accuracy, robustness and integrity of benchmarks and the benchmark setting process by clarifying the behaviours and standards expected of administrators and contributors. These requirements will ensure that benchmarks are produced in a transparent and reliable manner and so contribute to well-functioning and stable markets, and investor protection.

“ESMA, in preparing for its work on regulatory technical standards and technical advice, is keen to ensure that all affected stakeholders have their views heard on this important topic and we hope that all interested parties will take this opportunity to contribute.”

The DP is seeking stakeholder’s feedback in the following areas:

• definition of benchmarks;
• requirements for the benchmark oversight function;
• requirements for the benchmark input data;
• governance and control requirements for supervised benchmark contributors;
• authorisation and registration of an administrator; and
• transparency requirements regarding the benchmark methodology.

The exact date when the Benchmarks Regulation will enter into force is still unknown as it has not yet been published in the Official Journal of the EU.

Next steps

ESMA will hold an open hearing on the DP on 29 February 2016 in Paris. It will use the responses to its DP to develop detailed implementing measures on which it will publish a follow-up consultation in Q3 2016.

ESMA fines DTCC Derivatives Repository Limited €64,000 for data access failures

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has fined the trade repository DTCC Derivatives Repository Limited (DDRL) €64,000, and issued a public notice, for negligently failing to put in place systems capable of providing regulators with direct and immediate access to derivatives trading data. This is a key requirement under the European Markets and Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) in order to improve transparency and facilitate the monitoring of systemic risks in derivatives markets.

This is the first time ESMA has taken enforcement action against a trade repository registered in the European Union (EU). DDRL is the largest EU registered trade repository.

ESMA found that DDRL failed to provide direct and immediate access to derivatives data from 21 March 2014 to 15 December 2014, a period of about nine months in which access delays increased from two days to 62 days after reporting and affected 2.6 billion reports. This was due to its negligence in:

• failing to put in place data processing systems that were capable of providing regulators with direct and immediate access to reported data;
• failing, once they became aware, to inform ESMA in a timely manner of the delays that were occurring; and
• taking three months to establish an effective remedial action plan even while delays were worsening.

DDRL’s failures caused delays to regulators accessing data, revealed systemic weaknesses in its organisation particularly its procedures, management systems or internal controls and negatively impacted the quality of the data it maintained.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has fined Moody’s Deutschland GmbH (Moody’s Germany) €750,000 and Moody’s Investors Service Limited (Moody’s UK) €490,000, and issued a public notice, for two negligent breaches of the Credit Rating Agencies Regulation (CRAR).

ESMA found that Moody’s Germany and Moody’s UK negligently committed two infringements of the CRAR regarding their public announcement of certain ratings and their public disclosure of methodologies used to determine those ratings. These failures concern nineteen ratings issued between June 2011 and December 2013 for nine supranational entities including the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund, the European Stability Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility and the European Union.

BG  - Преводът е предоставен от Центъра за преводи за органите на Европейския съюз.
CS - Tento překlad vypracovalo Překladatelské středisko pro instituce Evropské unie.
DA - Denne oversættelse er udarbejdet af Oversættelsescentret for Den Europæiske Unions Organer.
DE - Die Übersetzung erfolgte durch das Übersetzungszentrum für die Einrichtungen der Europäischen Union.
EL - Η παρούσα μετάφραση έγινε από το Μεταφραστικό Κέντρο των Οργάνων της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης.
ES - Texto traducido por el Centro de Traducción de los Órganos de la Unión Europea
ET - Selle tõlke tegi Euroopa Liidu Asutuste Tõlkekeskus.
FI - Euroopan unionin elinten käännöskeskus on tehnyt tämän käännöksen.
FR - La présente traduction a été fournie par le Centre de traduction des organes de l’Union européenne.
HR - Za prijevod se pobrinuo Prevoditeljski centar za tijela Europske unije.
HU - Ezt a fordítást az Európai Unió
IT - La presente traduzione è stata fornita dal Centro di traduzione degli organismi dell’Unione europea.
LT - Šį tekstą išvertė Europos Sąjungos įstaigų vertimo centras.
LV - Šo tulkojumu ir nodrošinājis Eiropas Savienības iestāžu Tulkošanas centrs.
MT - Din it-traduzzjoni ġiet ipprovduta  miċ-Ċentru tat-Traduzzjoni għall-Korpi tal-Unjoni Ewropea.
NL - Deze vertaling is verzorgd door het Vertaalbureau voor de organen van de Europese Unie.
PL - Tłumaczenie wykonane przez Centrum Tłumaczeń dla Organów Unii Europejskiej.
PT - Esta tradução foi fornecida pelo Centro de Tradução dos Organismos da União Europeia.
RO - Această traducere a fost asigurată de Centrul de Traduceri pentru Organismele Uniunii Europene.
SK - Preklad vyhotovilo Prekladateľské stredisko pre orgány Európskej únie.
SL - Prevod je zagotovil Prevajalski center za organe Evropske unije.
SV - Den här översättningen har utförts av Översättningscentrum för Europeiska unionens organ.

BG  - Преводът е предоставен от Центъра за преводи за органите на Европейския съюз.CS - Tento překlad vypracovalo Překladatelské středisko pro instituce Evropské unie.DA - Denne oversættelse er udarbejdet af Oversættelsescentret for Den Europæiske Unions Organer.DE - Die Übersetzung erfolgte durch das Übersetzungszentrum für die Einrichtungen der Europäischen Union.EL - Η παρούσα μετάφραση έγινε από το Μεταφραστικό Κέντρο των Οργάνων της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης.ES - Texto traducido por el Centro de Traducción de los Órganos de la Unión Europea ET - Selle tõlke tegi Euroopa Liidu Asutuste Tõlkekeskus.FI - Euroopan unionin elinten käännöskeskus on tehnyt tämän käännöksen.FR - La présente traduction a été fournie par le Centre de traduction des organes de l’Union européenne. HR - Za prijevod se pobrinuo Prevoditeljski centar za tijela Europske unije.HU - Ezt a fordítást az Európai UnióIT - La presente traduzione è stata fornita dal Centro di traduzione degli organismi dell’Unione europea.LT - Šį tekstą išvertė Europos Sąjungos įstaigų vertimo centras.LV - Šo tulkojumu ir nodrošinājis Eiropas Savienības iestāžu Tulkošanas centrs.MT - Din it-traduzzjoni ġiet ipprovduta  miċ-Ċentru tat-Traduzzjoni għall-Korpi tal-Unjoni Ewropea.NL - Deze vertaling is verzorgd door het Vertaalbureau voor de organen van de Europese Unie.PL - Tłumaczenie wykonane przez Centrum Tłumaczeń dla Organów Unii Europejskiej.PT - Esta tradução foi fornecida pelo Centro de Tradução dos Organismos da União Europeia.RO - Această traducere a fost asigurată de Centrul de Traduceri pentru Organismele Uniunii Europene.SK - Preklad vyhotovilo Prekladateľské stredisko pre orgány Európskej únie.SL - Prevod je zagotovil Prevajalski center za organe Evropske unije.SV - Den här översättningen har utförts av Översättningscentrum för Europeiska unionens organ.