Point (e) of Article 21(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 requires the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to submit by 2 January 2012 draft regulatory technical standards to be endorsed by the Commission concerning the content and format of the ratings data that credit ratings agencies should periodically report to ESMA. The purpose of this periodic reporting is to allow ESMA to discharge its responsibility with regard to the ongoing supervision of credit rating agencies, as established by Article 21(1) of that Regulation.

Ratings data should allow ESMA to supervise closely the conduct and activities of credit rating agencies, so as to be able to react promptly in case of actual or potential breaches of the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009. For this reason, ratings data should normally be reported to ESMA on a monthly basis. However, in order to ensure proportionality, credit rating agencies that have fewer than 50 employees and that are not part of a group should be able to submit ratings data every two months, instead of every month. ESMA should still be able to require those credit ratings agencies to carry out monthly reporting, in light of the number and type of their ratings, including the complexity of the credit analysis, the relevance of the rated instruments or issuers and the eligibility of the ratings to be used for purposes such as those of Directive 2006/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.

The data to be reported should be compiled in a standard format to allow ESMA to receive and process the records automatically in its internal systems. Due to technical progress over time, a number of technical reporting instructions concerning the transmission or the format of the files to be submitted by credit rating agencies may have to be updated and communicated by ESMA through specific communications or guidelines.

With a view to ensuring complete and correct reporting of ratings data, and to taking into account further developments in the financial markets, it is important to enable credit rating agencies to develop adequate systems and procedures following the technical specifications provided by ESMA. For this purpose, the Regulation shall only enter into force six months after its publication. Meanwhile, credit rating agencies should submit periodic ratings data in accordance with the existing guidelines issued by the Committee of European Securities Regulators.

Credit rating agencies that are part of a group should be able to either report their ratings data separately to ESMA, or mandate one of the other agencies within the group to submit the data on behalf of all group members that are subject to the reporting requirements.

This Regulation is based on the draft regulatory technical standards submitted by ESMA to the Commission, in accordance with Article 10 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ESMA has conducted open public consultations on the draft regulatory technical standards on which this Regulation is based, analysed the potential related costs and benefits and requested the opinion of the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group established in accordance with Article 37 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010,