The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a report containing its proposals for regulatory and implementing technical standards (RTS/ITS) in accordance with the European Union's Benchmarks Regulation, the point of which is to ensure the accuracy and integrity of benchmarks all over the EU's financial sector.

The report sets out the behaviour and standards that ESMA wants the EU to impose on administrators and contributors. They are designed to ensure that people produce financial benchmarks in an open and reliable manner.

The report suggests that:

• the full process of provision of a benchmark ought to be checked by a new oversight function that administrators have to establish;
• the potential manipulation of benchmarks is minimised, through new rules regarding the methods of calculation and the contribution of 'input data';
• conflicts of interest of administrators and contributors ought to be managed properly; and
• there ought to be honest competition between EU countries when it comes to the authorisation and registration of benchmarks' administrators.