The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has finalized its technical advice to the European Commission on important aspects of the rules for financial benchmarks, in the wake of the LIBOR manipulation scandal, the regulator announced on Thursday.
Regulators have been beefing up oversight of these critical metrics after the manipulation of various benchmarks came to light in the past several years.
The new regulatory framework aims to clarify the behaviours and standards expected of benchmark administrators and contributors, in an effort to ensure that benchmarks are produced in a transparent and reliable manner.
“In finalizing our advice, we have listened carefully to stakeholders and they have expressed concerns in particular about duplicative reporting regimes under different pieces of EU legislation. Where existing reporting mechanisms can be used for new regulatory purposes, we will always strive to streamline processes and I believe our advice on measuring benchmarks’ reference values reflects that commitment,” said Steven Maijoor, chair of ESMA, in a news release.
The European Commission will prepare the final rules for benchmarks for implementation by Jan. 1, 2018.