On 30 May 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a final report on the review of the regulatory technical standards (RTS) on the information to be provided in an application for authorisation and registration under the Benchmarks Regulation.

Article 34(8) of the Benchmarks Regulation states that ESMA shall develop RTS to specify further the information to be provided in the application for authorisation and in the application for registration, taking into account that authorisation and registration are distinct processes where authorisation requires a more extensive assessment of the administrator’s application, the principle of proportionality, the nature of the supervised  entities applying for registration and the costs to the applicants and competent authorities. On 30 March 2017, ESMA published the RTS on the application for authorisation and registration. The corresponding Delegated Regulation was published in the Official Journal in 2018.

The final report sets forth the background information on why ESMA sought to review the RTS, the feedback received to its earlier consultation last November and its final proposals for amending the technical standards. Based on the feedback received to the consultation paper ESMA has not amended its proposals and they remain identical to that consulted on. The final report also includes in the annexes the draft amendments to the technical standards together with a marked-up consolidated version and a cost and benefit analysis.

The amended draft RTS will be submitted to the European Commission. The Commission has three months to decide whether to endorse the regulatory technical standards.