The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has today launched two consultations on proposed guidance for some of its supervised entities.

The consultations are aimed at the following entities supervised by ESMA: Benchmark Administrators, Credit Rating Agencies, and three types of Market Transparency Infrastructures (Securitisation Repositories under SECR, Trade Repositories under EMIR/SFTR, and Data Reporting Service Providers under MiFiR).

Consultation on periodic reporting
The Consultation Paper sets out the information ESMA expects to receive and a timeline for supervised entities to provide the required information. The objective of the Draft Guidelines is to ensure consistency in cross-sectoral reporting.

The proposed Guidelines aim to:

ensure a harmonised approach to periodic reporting;
increase consistency and usability of the reported information;
establish proportionate reporting based on the risk profile of the supervised entity; and
reduce the reporting burden by tailoring reporting frequencies to a risk-based supervisory approach
Consultation on supervisory expectations for management bodies
The Consultation Paper sets out ESMA’s supervisory expectations in relation to good practice in governance arrangements, such as on the role, operation, and effectiveness of the management bodies of the entities supervised by ESMA. The proposed guidance is also aimed at future supervised entities.

In addition, this consultation seeks feedback from systemically important Third Country Central Counterparties (Tier 2 TC CCPs).