ESMA publishes Opinion and Q&A on disclosure technical standards under the Securitisation Regulation
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published today an Opinion containing a revised set of draft regulatory and implementing technical standards (disclosure RTS/ITS) under the Securitisation Regulation, which concern the details of a securitisation to be published by the originator, sponsor and Securitisation Special Purpose Entity (SSPE), as well as the relevant format and templates.
This Opinion is ESMA’s response to the European Commission’s (EC) letter of 30/11/2018, received on 14/12/2018, requesting certain amendments to the disclosure technical standards published in ESMA’s Final Report on 22 August 2018.
ESMA agrees with the EC’s requests to amend its disclosure RTS/ITS and, accordingly, has substantially expanded the ability for reporting entities to use the ‘No Data’ options in the respective disclosure templates, in particular in the templates for asset-back commercial paper securitisation. In addition, ESMA has also adjusted the content of certain fields in the templates, where it considered that this could more appropriately address the EC’s request. ESMA has also clarified the templates to be used to provide any inside information as well as information on significant events affecting the securitisation (under (f) and (g) of Article 7(1) of the Securitisation Regulation).
Additionally, in order to provide a comprehensive package of clarifications for market participants, ESMA has developed a set of Q&A based on stakeholder feedback and questions on the disclosure technical standards received by ESMA since 22 August 2018.
These Q&A cover many technical issues on how to complete template fields and aim at providing guidance to market participants seeking further context that may be helpful for their future expectations of how to comply with these RTS/ITS. Nevertheless, they are being provided in advance of the possible adoption of the disclosure RTS/ITS being adopted by the EC and consequently, are subject to possible changes.
ESMA has prepared these draft RTS/ITS with due regard to its mandates of investor protection, orderly markets, and financial stability.
Next Steps
ESMA submitted today its Opinion containing these revised draft technical standards to the EC for endorsement. These revised RTS/ITS will contribute to delivering a regulatory rule-book for European Union securitisation markets.
The XML schema for these templates shall be made available in the coming months.