Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 448/2012 of 21 March 2012 supplementing Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the presentation of the information that credit rating agencies shall make available in a central repository established by the European Securities and Markets Authority Text with EEA relevance

• Published date: 30 May 2012
• Subject Matter: Internal market - Principles
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Union, L 140, 30 May 2012

30.5.2012 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 140/17

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COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) No 448/2012

of 21 March 2012

supplementing Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the presentation of the information that credit rating agencies shall make available in a central repository established by the European Securities and Markets Authority

(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 (1) and in particular Article 21(4)(c) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Article 11(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 requires credit rating agencies to make certain information on historical performance data available in the central repository established by the European Securities and Markets Authority (hereinafter ‘ESMA’). This information is required to be provided in a standard form as provided for by ESMA and made available by ESMA to the public which shall also publish summary information on the main developments observed. These requirements need to be supplemented as regards the presentation of the information provided, including structure, format, method and period of reporting.

(2) Credit rating agencies belonging to a group of credit rating agencies located in the Union may report separately to the central repository. However, due to the credit rating agencies’ highly integrated functional organisation at Union level and in order to facilitate the understanding of statistics, credit rating agencies should be encouraged to report to the central repository on a global basis for the whole group.

(3) The central repository system collects data on credit ratings and stores them centrally. In order to help market participants to better assess the reliability of credit ratings and thereby assist them in taking investment decisions, the central repository should also accept on a voluntary basis credit ratings issued by third country credit rating agencies belonging to the same group of credit rating agencies but not endorsed in the Union.

(4) To further facilitate the understanding of the statistics produced, the reporting of data on credit ratings should include any data relating to at least the last 10 years before the entry into force of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009. A credit rating agency should not be required to report these data if it can demonstrate that this would not be proportionate in view of their scale and complexity.

(5) This Regulation is based on the draft regulatory technical standards submitted by ESMA to the Commission for endorsement by 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 (2).

(6) ESMA has conducted an open public consultation on the draft regulatory technical standards on which this Regulation is based and requested the opinion of the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group established in accordance with Article 37 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010. However, ESMA did not conduct a cost-benefit analysis since it considered this disproportionate to the impact of the draft regulatory technical standards given that the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) had been establishing the central repository since 2010 and the draft technical standards reflected the operation of the existing system rather than applying material new requirements and was therefore not expected to impose significant additional costs on ESMA or credit rating agencies,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation specifies the rules for the presentation of the information, including structure, format, method and period of reporting, that credit rating agencies are required to make available in a central repository in accordance with:

(a) Article 11(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009;

(b) point 1 of Part II of Section E of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009.

CHAPTER II

REPORTING STRUCTURE

Article 2

Reporting principles

1. A credit rating agency shall submit the following types of report to the central repository established by ESMA:

(a) qualitative data reports as set out in Article 7 and Article 9; and

(b) rating data reports as set out in Article 8 and Article 10.

2. A credit rating agency shall be responsible for the accuracy, completeness and availability of its reported data. It shall ensure that the reports are provided in due time using the reporting channels in Article 11 and according to the reporting procedure in Article 13.

3. Where a credit rating agency belongs to a group of credit rating agencies the members of the group may mandate one of their members to report the required information on behalf of the group. When the mandated group member reports information on behalf of the group it shall identify both itself and the group members on whose behalf it is reporting the information.

Article 3

Ratings to be reported

1. A credit rating agency shall report data on a credit rating for each reporting period until this credit rating is withdrawn.

2. A credit rating agency shall report both solicited and unsolicited ratings. It shall indicate whether a rating is solicited or unsolicited.

3. A credit rating agency reporting on behalf of a group of credit rating agencies may include data of third country credit rating agencies belonging to the same affiliated group which are not used in the Union by means of endorsement. Where a credit rating agency does not report such data it shall give an explanation in its qualitative data report.

4. A credit rating agency shall report data on credit ratings covering at least the last 10 years before the entry into force of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009. A credit rating agency that did not issue credit ratings prior to 7 December 1999 shall report data for the reporting periods following the first date on which it issued a credit rating. A credit rating agency is not required to report in respect of rating periods that predate its registration or certification under Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 if it can demonstrate that reporting such data is not proportionate in view of its scale and complexity.

5. A credit rating agency shall report the following types of ratings:

(a) corporate ratings;

(b) structured finance ratings;

(c) sovereign and public finance ratings.

Article 4

Corporate ratings

1. A credit rating agency shall report data concerning corporate ratings on an issuer basis.

2. A credit rating agency may treat ratings of a subsidiary of an undertaking either as an individual rating or not. That credit rating agency shall explain the policy chosen.

3. When reporting corporate ratings a credit rating agency shall classify the ratings within one of the industry segments specified in field 18 of Table 1 of Annex II.

4. Corporate ratings data for short-term ratings and long-term ratings shall both be reported where available. For the long-term ratings the issuer rating shall be reported. Where an issuer rating is not available, the long-term unsecured debt rating shall be reported. Where foreign and local currency ratings are available, only the foreign currency rating shall be reported.

Article 5

Structured finance ratings

1. Subject to the specific characteristics set out in paragraph 2 and 3, a credit rating agency shall report long-term ratings on an issue basis for structured finance instruments.

2. A credit rating agency shall report long-term ratings on an issuer basis for structured investment vehicles and similar structures.

3. A credit rating agency shall report short-term ratings on an issue basis for asset-backed commercial papers.

4. When reporting structured finance ratings, a credit rating agency shall classify the ratings within one of the following asset classes:

(a) Asset-backed securities. This asset class includes the sub-asset classes auto/boat/airplane loans, student loans, consumer loans, health care loans, manufactured housing loans, film loans, utility loans, equipment leases, credit card receivables, tax liens, non-performing loans, credit-linked notes, recreational vehicle loans, and trade receivables;

(b) Residential mortgage-backed securities. This asset class includes the sub-asset classes prime residential mortgage-backed securities and non-prime residential mortgage-backed securities and home equity loans;

(c) Commercial mortgage-backed securities. This asset class includes the sub-asset classes retail or office property loans, hospital loans, care residences, storage facilities, hotel loans, nursing facilities, industrial loans, and multifamily properties;

(d) Collateralised debt obligations. This asset class includes the sub-asset classes collateralised loan obligations, collateralised bond obligations, collateralised synthetic obligations, single-tranche collateralised debt obligations, collateralised fund obligations, collateralised debt obligations of asset-backed securities, and collateralised debt obligations of collateralised debt obligations;

(e) Asset-backed commercial papers;

(f) Other structured finance instruments that are not included in the preceding asset classes, including structured covered bonds, structured investment vehicles, insurance-linked securities and derivative product companies.

5. A credit rating agency shall specify which asset class and sub-asset class (where applicable) each rated...