The European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA“) recently published three consultation papers on technical standards that implement the Securitisation Regulation (“SR“).

The SR is a European initiative designed to create a framework for simple, transparent and standardised (“STS“) securitisation. As part of the SR, certain information must be reported about securitisations to repositories, including the securitisation structure itself, its cash flow and information on underlying risks and exposures.

Where STS status is sought for a securitisation, it must fulfil further criteria, as well as notify ESMA as to how these criteria have been fulfilled. The consultation papers seek relevant stakeholder views on, amongst other points:

• Application requirements for any non-securitisation (i.e. third party) entities that seek authorisation to be providers of STS verification services;
• The general format and content of underlying exposures and investor report templates (that must aim to meet the SR’s reporting requirements); and
• The general content of the notification that must be sent to ESMA to establish a securitisation’s STS status.

ESMA will use the feedback from the consultation (which is open until March 19, 2018) to finalise its draft technical standards. ESMA will publish its final report in July 2018 (for STS notification and non-securitisation entity application requirements) and will publish ancillary elements by the end of 2018 (for reporting requirements and operational standards).

Please find the ESMA press release here, and the SR webpage here.