On 3 January 2024, the European Commission (Commission) published for consultation a draft Delegated Regulation amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/805 as regards harmonisation of certain aspects of supervisory fees charged by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to certain benchmark administrators.

Article 481 of the Benchmark Regulation mandates the Commission to adopt a delegated act to set the fees related to ESMA’s direct supervision of certain benchmark administrators. The Commission acted on this empowerment by adopting Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/805.

Following recommendations from the Internal Audit Service, the European Court of Auditors and technical advice provided by ESMA, the Commission is seeking to align certain technical aspects of the fee collection process across ESMA’s mandate.

In the draft delegated act, the modalities of the calculation and collection of fees for benchmark administrators under ESMA’s supervision are being brought into line with those applicable in other areas where ESMA charges fees. Therefore, the draft delegated act makes certain amendments including specifying in Article 2a the principle of full cost recovery and the scope of costs (direct and indirect) to be fully covered by fees. In addition, it is specified that any late payments shall incur the default interest laid down in Article 99 of Regulation 2018/1046, instead of a fixed daily penalty equal to 0.1% of the amount due.

The deadline for comments on the draft delegated act is 31 January 2024.