ESMA consults on Guidelines for non-significant benchmarks
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has launched a consultation on Guidelines detailing the obligations which apply to non-significant benchmarks under the Benchmarks Regulation (BMR).
The Consultation Paper proposes lighter requirements for non-significant benchmarks, their administrators and their supervised contributors in relation to four areas:
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procedures, characteristics and positioning of oversight function;
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appropriateness and verifiability of input data;
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transparency of methodology; and
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governance and control requirements for supervised contributors.
The first three areas are applicable to administrators of non-significant benchmarks while the fourth one is directly applicable to supervised contributors to non-significant benchmarks.
ESMA welcomes stakeholders’ feedback, which it will consider in producing the final Guidelines. The closing date for comments is 30 November 2017.