| Title |
| Consultation on (i) a draft Directive / Regulation with respect
to the authorisation, operation and supervision of credit rating
agencies (CRAs) and (ii) on policy options to address the problem of
excessive reliance on credit ratings. |
| Policy field(s) |
| Internal market, Financial services, Securities and Investment
Funds |
| Target group(s) |
| All citizens and organisations are welcome to contribute to this
consultation. Contributions are particularly sought from users of
credit ratings and in particular investors and their industry
associations, other professional organisations in the field of
financial markets, credit rating agencies and securities regulators. |
| Period of consultation |
| From 31.07.2008 to 05.09.2008 |
| Objective of the consultation |
The policy response currently being developed by the Commission
is likely to involve a legislative framework for credit rating
agencies comprising both a set of legal obligations to be complied
with by CRAs as well as independent external oversight. Addressees of
the rules proposed by the Commission will be all existing (and
prospective) credit rating agencies with business operations having
significant market impact in Europe. The proposed directive /
regulation will aim to achieve the following objectives:
- Appropriate management of conflicts of interest.
- Improvements in quality of output.
- Increased transparency of CRAs' activities.
- Establishment of a supervisory and enforcement regime on the
territory of the EU.
The Commission services also identify in broad terms the references
made to ratings in the existing EU legislation and look for
stakeholders' comments on possible approaches to tackle the problem of
excessive reliance on ratings. |
| How to submit your contribution |
| Closed |
| View the consultation document |
Proposal for a regulatory framework for CRAs  
Policy options to address the problem of excessive reliance on ratings |
| Contact details |
| Responsible service : DG Internal Market and Services;
Unit G3 |
| E-mail : Markt-G3@ec.europa.eu |
| Postal address : Spa 2 03/079, B-1049 Brussels, Belgium |
| Reason why the consultation period is less than 8 weeks |
| It was not possible for Commission services to start the
consultation period earlier given the fact that the advice of the
Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) and the report of
European Securities Markets Expert group (ESME) were delivered only in
May and June this year respectively. These contributions had been prepared
on the request of the Commission and offered the necessary basis for
the Commission services' work in this area. Moreover, a substantial
amount of time in the preparatory phase has been devoted to eventually
unsuccessful attempts to create a self-regulatory solution for the CRA
industry.
Neither is it possible to extend the consultation period later in
September: in view of the forthcoming elections, the European
Parliament has agreed with the European Commission to accept the
Commission proposals to be dealt in co-decision only by October 2008
at the latest. This implies that the Commission services will need to
launch and finalise an Interservice Consultation in September 2008 in
order to meet this deadline. Commission services will compensate the
short consultation period by individually encouraging important
stakeholders (including regulators, Member States and the CRAs) to
participate in the public consultation. |
| Number of responses received to this consultation |
| 96 |
| View the contributions |
|
Contributions In the interests of transparency, organisations have been invited to provide the public with relevant information about themselves by registering in the Interest Representative Register and subscribing to its Code of Conduct. If the organisation is not registered, the submission is published separately from the registered organisations. |
| Results of consultation and next steps |
| - |
Specific privacy statement |
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