EU Regulatory Forbearance for Audit Requirements for Interest Rate Benchmark Administrators and Contributors

The European Securities and Markets Authority has issued a public statement asking national regulators across the EU not to prioritize supervisory actions against interest rate benchmark administrators and contributors for failing to comply with the external audit requirements under the Benchmark Regulation, where those audits are carried out by September 30, 2020. The EU Benchmark Regulation requires an interest rate benchmark administrator to have an external audit conducted of its compliance with the benchmark methodology and Benchmark Regulation. Contributors to interest rate benchmarks are required to have an external audit conducted of their input data and compliance with the Benchmark Regulation. ESMA is granting the regulatory forbearance in response to the impact of COVID-19. ESMA states that administrators and contributors that anticipate a delay to the required audits should inform their nation regulator.

View ESMA's statement.

Details of other regulatory responses to COVID-19 are available on our COVID-19 Research Center.

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