CHAPTER 3

CERTIFICATION
SECTION 1

Application for certification

Information for application for certification
Article 26
1
A credit rating agency shall provide ESMA with the following information:
a
the general information requested in points 1 to 10 of Annex II;
b
the information regarding its owners referred to in Article 8;
c
the organisational chart referred to in Article 10;
d
details on the arrangements in place to prevent, disclose and mitigate any existing or potential conflicts of interest between the rating business and ancillary services;
e
the information referred to in Article 13 regarding the credit rating agency’s financial resources.
2
A credit rating agency shall provide ESMA with the following information regarding its business activities:
a
for the preceding three years, the number of employees contracted and involved in the rating and ancillary services both permanent and temporary;
b
if the applicant has a branch, the number of employees involved in the rating and ancillary business in each branch;
c
the number of rating analysts contracted to the applicant including, if the credit rating agency has a branch, the number of rating analysts contracted in each branch;
d
if a credit rating agency is planning to establish a new branch, a description of the type of business activities the new branch is expected to conduct, its full name and address and the timeframe for its establishment;
e
if a credit rating agency is planning to conduct any new ancillary services, a description of the new services and the timeframe for their commencement;
f
the revenue generated over the past three years by the credit rating agency from rating and ancillary services as a proportion of total revenue, presented on a financial year basis;
g
if the credit rating agency has one or more branches, the revenue generated over the past three years by each branch as a proportion of total revenue, presented on a financial year basis.
3
A credit rating agency shall also provide ESMA with the following information regarding the credit ratings it issues or proposes to issue:
a
the class of credit ratings;
b
the rating nomenclatures used for each class of credit rating;
c
the definition of any rating action and statuses used by the credit rating agency;
d
details of whether the credit rating agency produces solicited or unsolicited ratings or both;
e
for each class of credit rating, the number of years of experience it has in producing these ratings;
f
for each class of credit rating, the current or expected proportion of public ratings and private ratings.
4
The credit rating agency shall indicate whether it currently holds, or expects to apply for, External Credit Assessment Institution (ECAI) status in one or more Member States and, if so, it shall identify the relevant Member State.

General requirements for the application for certification
Article 27
A credit rating agency shall ensure that its application complies with Articles 2 to 6 regarding the format of its application, the attestation of its accuracy, the class of credit ratings, number of employees and the policies and procedures provided to ESMA.