[author: Heidi Wardle]
On December 20, ESMA published a final report containing guidelines on non-significant benchmarks (“NSBs”) under the Benchmarks Regulation ((EU) 2016/1011) (“BMR”). The guidelines apply to competent authorities designated under Article 40 of the BMR, benchmark administrators and supervised contributors, and apply in relation to the provision of, and contribution to, NSBs.
The purpose of the guidelines is to ensure common, uniform and consistent application, for NSBs, of:
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The oversight function requirements in Article 5 of the BMR.
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The input data provision in Article 11 of the BMR.
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The transparency of the methodology provision in Article 13 of the BMR.
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The governance and control requirements for supervised contributors provision in Article 16 of the BMR.
The guidelines will apply two months after they have been translated into the official EU languages and published on ESMA’s website. During the two months national competent authorities must notify ESMA whether they comply or intend to comply with the guidelines and those that do not intend to comply must notify ESMA of their reasons for not complying.
The final report can be found here and the guidelines, which were published on ESMA’s website, can be found here.
