07 December 2009

Fitch response to CESR consultation on registration and mediation regarding the certification and assessment of CRA's systemic importance

Section II – Guidance on the Registration Procedure

Question 1: We note CESR’s question of whether we see any problems with the general approach to registration outlined in paragraphs 10-19 of the Consultation Paper.

We have one general observation with regard to paragraphs 10-11 concerning national laws. While Fitch accepts that national laws must be respected during the registration process, we believe that it is important that CESR does not appear to endorse an approach that could result in material changes in the EU Regulation and/or could encourage differing implementation regimes in the various Member States. Thus, we believe that minimum standards should apply wherever possible. For example, while we accept national laws must apply to professional secrecy, we would suggest that, at a minimum, the rules of professional secrecy that apply to CESR should also apply within the Member States to ensure a base level of consistency across all competent authorities. In this regard, we refer you to Articles 32 and 33 of the EU Regulation. With respect to the linguistic regimes, please refer to our comments below in response to Question 3.

Full response