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FSMA chairs first meeting of Euribor college

Press release

Today, the Financial Services and Markets Authority has chaired the first meeting of the supervisory college for the Euribor. This college brings together the supervisors of all banks taking part in the Euribor, as well as the supervisors of states for which the Euribor is of systemic importance.

In response to the alleged manipulation of financial benchmarks several years ago, a European regulation[1] imposes strict controls on the organisation and management of benchmark calculations. Notably, it sets out that the provision of benchmarks of critical importance can only be carried out by entities (called administrators) that have obtained authorisation in the member state where they are located. A benchmark is deemed to be critical if it is used as a reference for financial instruments or financial contracts, or for measuring the performance of an investment fund with a total value of at least 500 billion euros.

In accordance with the European regulation, the FSMA is the supervisory authority of the European Money Markets Institute (EMMI), the Brussels-based entity that manages the Euribor benchmark.

It is in this capacity that the FSMA has today chaired the inaugural meeting of the college uniting the supervisors of the various banks taking part in the Euribor, as well as the supervisors of states for which the Euribor presents a systemic character as a result of its importance for their real economy, for the financing of households and enterprises, or for consumers in general. The total value of financial instruments and contracts that use the Euribor as a benchmark has been estimated at USD 150.000 to 180.000 billion in 2014.

In addition to ESMA and the FSMA, the college currently consists of 15 national supervisory authorities. The European Central Bank (ECB) also attends the meetings.



[1]     Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 of 8 June 2016.