Moody’s Germany fined EUR 2,145,000 for misreporting to ESMA

What Changed

• - ESMA has clarified, through enforcement, that CRAs must ensure complete, accurate and up‑to‑date data is reported to ESMA across all relevant CRA reporting channels (including the European Rating Platform and ESMA’s central repository), both for th
• ESMA has reinforced that errors limited to regulatory reporting data (and not directly affecting published ratings) can still constitute material breaches of the CRA Regulation, demonstrating that supervisory focus extends beyond ratings methodologie
• ESMA has indicated that group reporting arrangements (where one CRA entity reports on behalf of others in the group) must have clear documentation of responsibilities, validation processes, and ownership of submissions; lack of clarity or outdated do
• ESMA has emphasized that regulatory reporting frameworks must include robust policies, procedures and internal control mechanisms, and that deficiencies in these frameworks constitute distinct infringements separate from pure data errors.
• ESMA has signalled that negligence, rather than intentional misconduct, is sufficient to trigger significant fines under the CRA Regulation, and that both aggravating and mitigating factors will be weighed in fine calculation.
• ESMA has confirmed that CRAs subject to sanctions may appeal to the Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities, but such appeals do not automatically suspend the effect of ESMA’s decision, highlighting the need for prompt remedial action

Suggested Considerations

• Conduct a comprehensive review of all ESMA‑related reporting processes to ensure that data submitted to ESMA (including rating information, historical performance data, rating changes, and other CRA regulatory reports) is complete, accurate, and kept up‑to‑date at all times.
• Map and document all responsibilities for ESMA reporting within the CRA group, ensuring that where one entity reports on behalf of others, the allocation of roles, ownership of data, and validation steps is explicitly defined, approved, and regularly reviewed.
• Perform a gap analysis of existing regulatory reporting policies, procedures, and internal control mechanisms against CRA Regulation requirements and ESMA supervisory expectations, and update documentation to remove ambiguities and outdated provisions.
• Implement or strengthen data validation and reconciliation controls over submissions to the European Rating Platform and ESMA’s central repositories, including automated checks for missing ratings, non‑withdrawn ratings, incorrect rating actions, and inconsistencies in historical performance data.
• Establish a formal governance process for changes to regulatory reporting frameworks, ensuring regular review, independent challenge by compliance or risk functions, and clear escalation routes for identified data quality issues or control failures.
• Provide targeted training to staff involved in ESMA reporting (including data, IT, operations, compliance, and rating operations teams) on CRA Regulation reporting obligations, ESMA expectations regarding data reliability, and the consequences of negligent misreporting.

Key Dates

Who is Affected