Forslag til europaparlaments- og rådsdirektiv om endring av direktiv 2009/65/EF om samordning av lover, forordninger og administrative bestemmelser om institutter for kollektiv investering i verdipapirer (UCITS) og av direktiv 2011/61/EU om forvaltere av alternative finansieringsforetak på bakgrunn av overdreven avhengighet av kredittvurdering
Ansvarlig departement: Finansdepartementet
Sakstype: Direktiv
Behandlende organ: Europaparlamentet og Rådet: behandler nye forslag
Saksområde: Finansielle tjenester: børs- og verdipapirer (EØS-avtalens vedlegg vedlegg 9.3)
BAKGRUNN (fra kommisjonsforslaget, engelsk utgave)
Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on credit rating agencies [1] (CRA Regulation) entered into full application on 7 December 2010. It requires credit rating agencies (CRAs) to comply with rigorous rules of conduct in order to mitigate possible conflicts of interest, ensure high quality and sufficient transparency of ratings and the rating process. Existing CRAs had to apply for registration and to comply with the requirements of the Regulation by 7 September 2010. On 11 May 2011 an amendment to the CRA Regulation [2] (Regulation (EU) No 513/2011) was adopted, entrusting the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) with exclusive supervisory powers over CRAs registered in the EU in order to centralise and simplify their registration and supervision at European level.
However, a number of issues related to credit rating activities and the use of ratings have not been sufficiently addressed in the existing CRA Regulation. One of these issues is the risk of overreliance on credit ratings by financial market participants, including undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) and alternative investment funds (AIFs) [3].
The European Commission pointed to these open issues in its Communication of 2 June 2010 ("Regulating financial services for sustainable growth") [4] and in a consultation paper of the Commission services of 5 November 2011 [5] announcing the need for a targeted review of the CRA Regulation which is delivered with this proposal.
On 8 June 2011, the European Parliament issued a non-legislative report on CRAs [6]. The report supports, inter alia, the need to enhance the regulatory framework for credit rating agencies and to take measures to reduce the risk of over-reliance of ratings.
At an informal ECOFIN meeting of 30 October 2010 the Council of the European Union acknowledged that further efforts should be made to address a number of issues related to credit rating activities, including the risk of over-reliance on credit ratings and the risk of conflict of interests stemming from the remuneration model of rating agencies. The European Council of 23 October 2011 concluded that progress is needed on reducing overreliance on credit ratings.
At the international level, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) issued in October 2010 principles to reduce authorities’ and financial institutions’ reliance on external ratings7. The principles call for removing or replacing references to such ratings in legislation where suitable alternative standards of creditworthiness are available and for requiring investors to make their own credit assessments. Those principles were endorsed by the G 20 Seoul Summit in November 2010.
1 Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on credit rating agencies, OJ L 302, 17.11.2009.
2 Regulation (EU) No 513/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2011 amending Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on credit rating agencies, OJ L 145, 31.5.2011.
3 Overreliance on external credit ratings occurs when financial institutions and institutional investors rely solely or mechanistically on ratings issued by credit rating agencies while neglecting their own due diligence and internal risk management obligations. Overreliance on credit ratings may lead to herding behaviour of financial actors, e.g. parallel selling-off of debt instruments after that instrument has been downgraded below investment grade, which may affect financial stability – in particular when the few big rating agencies err collectively in their assessments.
4 COM(2010)301 final.
5 Available at http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2010/cra_en.htm.
6 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/FindByProcnum.do?lang=en&procnum=INI/....
