12 January 2012

ESMA publishes annual report on application of regulation on credit rating agencies

This report is the first annual report on the application of Article 21(5) of the Regulation No (EC) 1060/20091 on credit rating agencies, as amended by the Regulation No (EC) 513/20112 (CRA Regulation), which mandates ESMA to publish annually a report on the application of the Regulation.

The report contains, in particular, an assessment of the implementation of Annex I by credit rating agencies (CRA) registered under the CRA Regulation. It also includes an assessment of ESMA’s staffing and resource needs as required by Article 39a of the CRA Regulation.

Content

Following the applications for registration by CRAs, national competent authorities made sure that CRAs were compliant with the integrity, transparency, good governance, independence and quality standards spelled out in the Regulation before adopting any positive registration decision. This report presents how ESMA and competent authorities dealt with the assessment of the completeness and compliance of the CRA applications (Section III).

CRAs have had to carry out significant changes to their organisational structures and procedures in order to fulfil all registration requirements. Section III.II(d) of this report explains how CRAs have adapted to the requirements set out in Annex I of the Regulation.

From 1 July 2011, ESMA has been entrusted with the exclusive responsibility for the registration and supervision of CRAs in the EU. Section IV of this report covers the supervisory actions carried out by ESMA in the course of 2011 and its assessment of staffing and resource needs.

Section V reports on the implementation of CEREP, the aggregated credit ratings database accessible to the public, which will go live in January 2012.

A description of ESMA's policy work in 2011 is included in section VI of this report. Finally, section VII informs on the work carried out by ESMA regarding the assessment of third country regimes under the endorsement and certification provisions in the CRA.

Full report

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