CHAPTER 1
SUBJECT MATTER
Article 1
Subject matter
CHAPTER 2
REGISTRATION
SECTION 1
General
Article 2
Format of the application
Article 3
Attestation of the accuracy and completeness of the application
Article 4
Number of employees
Article 5
Class of credit ratings
Article 6
Policies and procedures
Article 7
Identification, legal status and class of credit ratings
SECTION 2
Ownership structure
Article 8
Owners and parent undertaking of a credit rating agency
Article 9
Ownership chart
SECTION 3
Organisational structure and corporate governance
Article 10
Organisational chart
Article 11
Organisational structure
Article 12
Corporate governance
SECTION 4
Financial resources for the performance of credit rating activities
Article 13
Financial reports
SECTION 5
Staffing and compensation
Article 14
Staffing policies and procedures
Article 15
Fitness and appropriateness
SECTION 6
Issuance and review of credit ratings
Article 16
Development, validation, review and disclosure of rating methodologies
Article 17
Issuance of credit ratings
Article 18
Monitoring of credit ratings
SECTION 7
Description of issue and review procedures and methodologies
Article 19
Credit rating presentation requirements
SECTION 8
Conflicts of interest
Article 20
Independence and avoidance of conflicts of interest
Article 21
Inventory of conflicts of interest
Article 22
Conflicts of interest with respect to ancillary services
SECTION 9
Programme of operations
Article 23
Information regarding the programme of operations
SECTION 10
Use of endorsement
Article 24
Expected use of endorsement
SECTION 11
Outsourcing
Article 25
Outsourcing requirements
CHAPTER 3
CERTIFICATION
SECTION 1
Application for certification
Article 26
Information for application for certification
Article 27
General requirements for the application for certification
SECTION 2
Systemic importance
Article 28
Systemic importance
CHAPTER 4
FINAL PROVISIONS
Article 29
Entry into force
ANNEX I
DOCUMENT REFERENCES
(Article 2)
ANNEX II
GENERAL INFORMATION
(Article 7)
1.
Full name
2.
Country of establishment
3.
Address of registered office
4.
Legal status
5.
With respect to the contact person(s) for the purpose of...
6.
With respect to the Compliance Officer:
7.
Description of the business activities the credit rating agency conducts,...
8.
Identification of the class of credit ratings according to the...
9.
Identification of the regulated markets where the credit rating agency...
10.
Financial reports:
11.
Number of employees (excluding employees located in branches) as at...
12.
If a credit rating agency has branches, with respect to...
13.
List of countries from which the credit rating agency intends...
ANNEX III
INFORMATION TO BE PRESENTED WITH REGARD TO THE OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE
(Article 8)
1.
Identification of the credit rating agency owners referred to in...
2.
Description of the business activities of the credit rating agency...
3.
Identification of the business activities of the companies in which...
4.
Identification of the owners of the parent undertaking referred to...
ANNEX IV
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
(Article 11)
1.
A credit rating agency shall provide the following information regarding...
2.
Where the arrangements referred to in point 1 of this...
3.
With respect to the compliance function, a credit rating agency...
4.
With respect to the internal audit function carrying out the...
ANNEX V
INFORMATION TO BE PRESENTED WITH REGARD TO CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
(Article 12)
1.
Identification of the members of the administrative or supervisory board...
2.
Identification of the independent members of the administrative or supervisory...
3.
A credit rating agency shall provide to ESMA a copy...
ANNEX VI
SELF DECLARATION
(Article 15(2))
ANNEX VII
ISSUANCE AND REVIEW OF CREDIT RATINGS
(Articles 16, 17 and 18)
1.
The information regarding the policies and procedures referred to in...
2.
The information regarding the policies and procedures referred to in...
3.
The information regarding the policies and procedures referred to in...
4.
The information regarding the policies and procedures referred to in...
ANNEX VIII
INDEPENDENCE AND AVOIDANCE OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
(Article 20)
ANNEX IX
PROGRAMME OF OPERATIONS
(Article 23)
Business concept/Business development
1.
The following information regarding the CRA’s business activities:
Class of credit ratings
2.
The following information regarding the class of credit ratings:
Financial plan
3.
Projections for:
4.
The credit rating agency shall separate the revenues of the...
Corporate governance
5.
Number of members of the following bodies:
Outsourcing
6.
A description of the activities planned to be outsourced, and...
Human Resources/Staffing
7.
Number of permanent and temporary employees working for the following...
8.
The following information:
ANNEX X
RECORD KEEPING, BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
(Article 11)
Record keeping
1.
Information regarding the policies and procedures regarding the record keeping...
Continuity and regularity of the activities
2.
Information regarding the continuity and regularity in the performance of...
Information processing systems
3.
Information regarding the information processing systems as set out in...
ANNEX XI
USE OF ENDORSEMENT
(Article 24)
Third-country credit rating agency
1.
The following information for each relevant third-country credit rating agency:...
2.
An organisational ownership chart of each credit rating agency, its...
Assessment of the third-country regulatory regime
3.
In relation to each relevant third-country jurisdiction, detailed information, structured...
Procedures to monitor conduct
4.
A description of the measures put in place by the...
Objective reasons
5.
An indication of objective reasons for credit ratings to be...
Legislation in the third country
6.
Evidence that public authorities are not entitled to interfere with...
ANNEX XII
SYSTEMIC IMPORTANCE INDICATORS
(Article 28)
1.
A credit rating agency shall provide ESMA with the volume...
2.
A credit rating agency shall provide information on the annual...
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 449/2012
of 21 March 2012
supplementing Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards on information for registration and certification of credit rating agencies
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on credit rating agencies , and in particular points (a) and (b) of Article 21(4) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
In accordance with the general objectives of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009, in particular the contribution to the quality of credit ratings issued in the Union, financial stability, consumer and investor protection, this Regulation should ensure that the information to be submitted to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) during the registration and certification processes, is provided following uniform rules, so that ESMA is able to make an informed decision on the registration or certification of a credit rating agency.
(2)
The longer-term benefits of the additional information are expected to outweigh any potential additional short-term costs of registration, in terms of investor protection and financial stability.
(3)
This Regulation should set out the information that ESMA is to receive as part of an application for registration by a credit rating agency. Certain information requested in this Regulation might not be applicable to a newly established credit rating agency because it might have applied for an exemption, lack previous experience in the credit rating business, or other reasons. This Regulation should not create a barrier of entry to newly established credit rating agencies willing to enter the market. Nevertheless, an applicant should provide a clear explanation for not submitting any specific information contained in that application.
(4)
Any information submitted to ESMA should be provided in a durable medium which enables its storage for future use. In order to facilitate the identification of the information submitted by a credit rating agency, all documents should be identified by a reference number.
(5)
In order for ESMA to assess if any conflicts of interest arising from the activities and business interests of the owners of a credit rating agency might affect the independence of a credit rating agency, a credit rating agency should be required to give information regarding its owners activities and the ownership of its parent undertaking.
(6)
A credit rating agency should provide information on the composition, functioning and independence of its governing bodies in order for ESMA to be able to assess whether the corporate governance structure ensures the independence of the credit rating agency and the avoidance of conflicts of interest.
(7)
In order to allow ESMA to assess the good repute as well as the experience and skills of the senior management, a credit rating agency should provide the curriculum vitae, recent criminal record and self-declarations on the good repute of its senior management.
(8)
For the purposes of assessing how conflicts of interest are eliminated or managed and disclosed, a credit rating agency should provide ESMA with an up-to-date inventory of existing and potential conflicts of interest covering at least the conflicts arising from the carrying out of ancillary services, the outsourcing of rating activities and the interaction with related third parties. When identifying the conflicts of interest for the inventory, a credit rating agency should consider conflicts of interest which might arise from entities which belong to the global group of undertakings to which it belongs. Therefore, intra-group arrangements concerning allocation of tasks and the provision of ancillary services by different entities within the group of undertakings should be taken into consideration.
(9)
Although the branches of a credit rating agency established in the Union are not legal persons, those agencies should provide separate information as regards their branches so as to enable ESMA to clearly identify the position of the branches in the organisational structure, assess the fitness and appropriateness of the senior management of the branches and evaluate whether the control mechanisms, compliance and other functions in place, are considered to be robust enough to identify, evaluate and manage the branches’ risks in an appropriate manner.
(10)
The information requested regarding possible conflicts of interests with ancillary services should refer to all businesses of the credit rating agency which are not part of the rating activities.
(11)
In order to enable ESMA to assess whether a third-country regulatory framework for CRAs may be considered ‘as stringent as’ the Union regime in place, a credit rating agency intending to endorse ratings issued in that third country should provide ESMA with detailed information on the third-country regulatory framework and how it compares to the Union regime in place. Where such information is already available to ESMA, from other applications for endorsement, and ESMA takes the view that the third-country regulatory framework may be considered to be as stringent as the Union regime in place, the applicant credit rating agencies should be exempted from submitting this information. In any case, the applicant credit rating agencies shall demonstrate that the conduct of credit rating activities by the third-country credit rating agency resulting in the issuing of the credit rating to be endorsed fulfils the requirements under the third-country regime and that there are procedures to monitor the conduct of credit rating activities by the third-country credit rating agency.
(12)
This Regulation should set out the information that a credit rating agency must provide in its application for certification and for the assessment of its systemic importance to the financial stability or integrity of financial markets referred to in Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009. The systemic importance of the credit rating agency and its rating activities to the stability of one or more Member States should be measured in this Regulation in terms of the size of its rating activities and interconnectedness of the users of its credit ratings in the Union.
(13)
This Regulation is based on the draft regulatory technical standards submitted by ESMA to the Commission pursuant to the procedure laid down in Article 10 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council .
(14)
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 under Article 37 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
OJ L 302, 17.11.2009, p. 1.
OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 84.
The “appropriate regulator” has power to make such provision as they consider appropriate by means of an instrument in writing to prevent, remedy or mitigate any failure of the provisions of this Regulation to operate effectively or any other deficiency arising from the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU, see The Financial Regulators' Powers (Technical Standards etc.) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 2018/1115), regs. 2, 3, Sch. Pt. 1 (with saving on IP completion day by S.I. 2019/680, regs. 1(2), 11; 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1))
Regulation: power to modify conferred (11.7.2023) by Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (c. 29), ss. 3, 86(3), Sch. 1 Pts. 1, 3; S.I. 2023/779, reg. 2(d)