On 6 May 2021, the European Commission adopted a Delegated Regulation supplementing the Benchmarks Regulation (BMR) with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying the characteristics of the systems and controls for the identification and reporting of any conduct that may involve manipulation or attempted manipulation of a benchmark.
The legislative basis of the Delegated Regulation is Article 14(4) of the BMR as amended by Regulation (EU) 2019/2175. This provision provides that the Commission is empowered to further specify the characteristics of the systems and controls to ensure integrity of the input data used on the provision of a benchmark.
The layout of the Delegated Regulation is as follows:
- Article 1 specifies the adequate systems and effective controls that an administrator shall have in place to ensure the integrity of input data in order to detect, identify and report any conduct that may involve manipulation or attempted manipulation of a benchmark.
- Article 2 specifies that employees of the administrator whose responsibilities are to operate systems and controls to ensure the integrity of the benchmark shall be adequately and regularly trained in detecting, identifying and reporting any suspicious input data that could be the result of benchmark manipulation or attempted manipulation.
- Article 3 specifies that an input data integrity policy shall document the systems and controls in place for ensuring the integrity of the benchmark.
The Delegated Regulation enters into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 1 January 2022.
