On June 3, 2015, the FCA published a consultation paper setting out proposals for fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory access to regulated benchmarks by benchmark administrators. This is further to the policy statement published by the FCA in March 2015 on the seven new benchmarks it will be regulating and supervising. The policy statement included the FCA's final rules amending Chapter 8 of the Market Conduct Sourcebook (MAR 8), originally designed for benchmarks determined through a submission process, such as LIBOR. The FCA's proposals are in response to concerns raised about the unconstrained ability of administrators to set the prices of access to benchmark information and benchmark licenses. The new proposals limit the ability of benchmark administrators to exploit their market power in a way that could encourage unfair competition. The new rules would apply to existing and future pricing and licensing arrangements and would not apply retrospectively. Responses are due before August 3, 2015 and the FCA aims to publish a policy statement and final rules towards the end of 2015.
The consultation paper is available at: http://www.fca.org.uk/static/fca/documents/consultation-papers/cp15-18.pdf.
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