The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (the Joint Committee) has published a discussion paper on the use of credit ratings by financial intermediaries.
The aim of the discussion paper is to:
- establish a preliminary overview of sectoral competent authorities’ (SCA) supervisory activities and experiences concerning contractual reliance on ratings and provide SCAs with an opportunity to complement the responses already received to the original questionnaire; and
- allow supervised entities to provide feedback to the Joint Committee on their degree of contractual reliance on credit ratings and on their recourse to alternative means of creditworthiness assessments.
Annex 1 of the discussion paper provides a list of questions directed at financial market participants and SCAs.
The deadline for responses to the discussion paper is 27 February 2014. In Q1/Q2 2015 ESMA will issue a consultation paper containing a summary of the consultation responses to the discussion paper and a first draft of the guidelines.
View Discussion Paper: The Use of Credit Ratings by Financial Intermediaries Article 5(a) of the CRA Regulation, 23 December 2014