Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized Issue 1 2024

BENCHMARKS REGULATION Council of the EU Agrees its Negotiating Mandate on the Benchmarks Regulation On 20 December 2023 the Council of the European Union (EU) agreed its negotiating mandate on the Benchmarks Regulation. The proposal concerns the scope of the rules for benchmarks, the use in the EU of benchmarks provided by an administrator located in a third country, and certain reporting requirements. Under the current rules, EUmarket participants can only use benchmarks produced or administered in a non-EU country if the country concerned has a framework equivalent to that of the EU, if its benchmark is endorsed by an EU benchmark administrator, or if the benchmark is recognised in the EU. The proposal aims to reduce the regulatory burden on administrators of benchmarks that are not economically significant in the EU by removing them from the scope of current rules. It intends to significantly reduce the scope of benchmark administrators subject to its requirements. It also aims to simplify the current approach to non-EU country benchmarks in the EU. In its negotiating mandate, the Council of the EU agreed that the regulatory treatment of commodity benchmarks should be tailored to their specific characteristics. The Council of the EU specified that only those benchmarks designated as critical, as significant (either by meeting a quantitative threshold, or by designation of the national competent authority concerned or by ESMA), EU Paris-aligned Benchmarks, EU Climate Transition Benchmarks, and certain commodity benchmarks (subject to Annex II of the regulation) should remain under the scope of regulation. Administrators of those benchmarks that were authorised, registered, endorsed or recognised on the date of application of this amending regulation should not be obliged to re-apply for authorisation, registration, recognition, or endorsement. This proposal forms part of a package of measures to rationalise reporting requirements. It aims to rationalise benchmark authorisation and registration and alleviate the burden on EU companies, in particular SMEs. Link to Council’s Negotiating Mandate here Securities Services Bite-Sized Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Issue 1 | 2024 QUICK LINKS BENCHMARKS REGULATION CSDR CYBERSECURITY DEFI DIGITALISATION DORA ELTIF FSB FUND LIQUIDITY MONEYMARKET FUNDS OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE/ESG ASIA EUROPE IRELAND NORTH AMERICA UNITED KINGDOM