(1)

Article 11(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 requires credit rating agencies to make certain information on historical performance data available in the central repository established by the European Securities and Markets Authority (hereinafter ‘ESMA’). This information is required to be provided in a standard form as provided for by ESMA and made available by ESMA to the public which shall also publish summary information on the main developments observed. These requirements need to be supplemented as regards the presentation of the information provided, including structure, format, method and period of reporting.

(2)

Credit rating agencies belonging to a group of credit rating agencies located in the Union may report separately to the central repository. However, due to the credit rating agencies’ highly integrated functional organisation at Union level and in order to facilitate the understanding of statistics, credit rating agencies should be encouraged to report to the central repository on a global basis for the whole group.

(3)

The central repository system collects data on credit ratings and stores them centrally. In order to help market participants to better assess the reliability of credit ratings and thereby assist them in taking investment decisions, the central repository should also accept on a voluntary basis credit ratings issued by third country credit rating agencies belonging to the same group of credit rating agencies but not endorsed in the Union.

(4)

To further facilitate the understanding of the statistics produced, the reporting of data on credit ratings should include any data relating to at least the last 10 years before the entry into force of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009. A credit rating agency should not be required to report these data if it can demonstrate that this would not be proportionate in view of their scale and complexity.

(5)

This Regulation is based on the draft regulatory technical standards submitted by ESMA to the Commission for endorsement by the Commission pursuant to the procedure laid down in Article 10 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2).

(6)

ESMA has conducted an open public consultation on the draft regulatory technical standards on which this Regulation is based and requested the opinion of the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group established in accordance with Article 37 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010. However, ESMA did not conduct a cost-benefit analysis since it considered this disproportionate to the impact of the draft regulatory technical standards given that the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) had been establishing the central repository since 2010 and the draft technical standards reflected the operation of the existing system rather than applying material new requirements and was therefore not expected to impose significant additional costs on ESMA or credit rating agencies,