Benchmark administrators as gatekeepers: accountability and policy effects

This chapter studies the accountability mechanisms in the EU Benchmark Regulation (BMR). Benchmarks‚ÄØare indices serving as essential reference points for financial instruments and contracts, and consequently for the operation of markets. In the aftermath of the index-fixing scandals of the early 2010s, the EU established a new framework governing the provision of benchmarks by so-called administrators. The BMR establishes their duties in the market, which take the form of private accountability arrangements. Administrators serve here as both agents and principals, being accountable both to supervisors for the compliance of third parties with the BMR (public accountability) and to the market for how they develop benchmarks (private accountability). The chapter explores why legislators opt for wider responsibilisation of selected private market actors rather than pursuing direct regulation of all the market actors concerned. Second, it looks at the uses and effects of such accountability mechanisms across different countries in the EU.