On May 23, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published an updated version (ESMA70-145-11) of its Q&As on the Benchmarks Regulation ((EU) 2016/1011) (BMR), which were previously updated in January 2019. The updated Q&As can be found here.

The Q&As have been updated to include:

• A new Q&A 7.4 on the relevant time to determine the member state of reference in an application for recognition under Article 32(4) of the BMR.
• A new Q&A 7.5 on the information on which national competent authorities may rely on in an external audit report of compliance with the International Organization of Securities Commission (IOSCO) principles for oil reporting agencies under Article 32(2) of the BMR.
• A new Q&A 8.5 on the type of information that should be included in the field “contact info” of ESMA’s register of benchmark administrators.