On 30 July 2021, the European Commission published for consultation a draft Delegated Regulation supplementing the Benchmarks Regulation (BMR) by covering the fees that benchmark administrators need to pay the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for supervision and the procedure that ESMA needs to follow to impose fines or penalties on benchmark administrators under its supervision.

The draft Delegated Regulation is made pursuant to Articles 48i(10) and 48I(3) of the BMR.

Article 48i(10) of the BMR, empowers the Commission to adopt a delegated act to further specify the rules of procedure for the exercise of the power to impose fines or periodic penalty payments, including provisions on the rights of the defence, limitation period for the imposition of fines and periodic penalty payments, the collection of fines or periodic penalty payments, and the limitation periods for the imposition and enforcement of fines and periodic penalty payments.

Article 48l(1) of the BMR requires ESMA to charge fees to administrators of critical benchmarks and of third country benchmarks. According to that provision, the Commission is empowered to adopt a delegated act to specify the type of fees, the matters for which fees are due, the amount of the fees and the manner in which they are to be paid.

The deadline for comments is 27 August 2021.