ESMA updates regulatory technical standards (RTS) under the Benchmarks Regulation (BMR)
The European Securities and Markets Authority, the EU’s securities markets regulator, has published its final report containing new sets of draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) under the Benchmarks Regulation (BMR). These contain additional detailed rules to implement the European regulatory framework aimed at ensuring the accuracy and integrity of benchmarks across the European Union.
The draft RTS result from the ESAs Review, Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2019/2175, that introduced changes to the BMR including a new mandate for ESMA to develop draft RTS. They set out the behaviours and standards expected of administrators and will further enhance the robustness and reliability of financial benchmarks. The draft standards include provisions ensuring:
- that the governance arrangements of administrators are sufficiently robust;
- the potential manipulation of benchmarks is minimised, through additional rules regarding the methodology of calculation and controls to ensure the integrity of the data; and
- common criteria are used across different Member States for the assessment of the mandatory administration of critical benchmarks and the compliance statement for non-significant benchmarks.
Next Steps
By 1 October 2020, ESMA will submit the final draft RTS to the European Commission, which will have three months in which to approve or reject them.