The European Union’s securities and markets watchdog has withdrawn the registrations of ten British credit rating agencies and trade repositories in the Brexit aftermath.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has pulled the plug on credit rating agencies AM Best Europe-Rating Services, DBRS Ratings, Fitch Ratings Ltd, Fitch Ratings CIS, Moody’s Investors Service and the Economist Intelligence Unit.
ESMA also withdrew the registrations of four trade repositories: DTCC Derivatives Repository, UnaVista Limited, CME Trade Repository and ICE Trade Vault Europe.
“ESMA’s decisions follow the end of the transition period of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, which occurred on 31 December 2020,” the regulator wrote.
“The CRA Regulation and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), as well as the Regulation on transparency of securities financing transactions and of reuse (SFTR), require ESMA to withdraw the registration of a firm where it no longer meets the conditions under which it was registered, including being a legal person established in the EU. UK credit ratings will need to be endorsed for EU use.
“The ratings issued by the above mentioned CRAs cannot be used for regulatory purposes in the EU unless endorsed by an EU CRA. ESMA, in a previous communication on 27 October 2020, confirmed that all UK-based CRAs except the Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd took steps to ensure that an EU CRA is willing and able to endorse its credit ratings.”
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