Communication to undertakings for collective investment and investment fund managers in the context of the amended benchmark regulation

This communiqué follows up on the publication of Regulation (EU) 2025/914 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 May 2025 amending the EU Benchmarks Regulation¹. It is addressed to all undertakings for collective investment (UCIs) and investment fund managers (IFMs) that are subject to the CSSF’s supervision and that use benchmarks.

As indicated by ESMA², the revised rules aim to strike a balance between reducing the regulatory burden on administrators and users of benchmarks that are non-significant in the EU, while still safeguarding the integrity, robustness and reliability of the benchmarks in scope in order to ensure a high level of consumer and investor protection.

Starting January 2026, the scope of the regulation will include only critical or significant benchmarks, as well as EU Climate Transition and EU Paris-Aligned Benchmarks and certain commodity benchmarks (subject to Annex II of the EU Benchmarks Regulation).

The main elements of the amended benchmarks regulation were summarised³ by the Council of the EU:

• Reduced regulatory burden on administrators of benchmarks defined as non-significant in the EU by removing them from the scope of the legislation.
• Only critical or significant benchmarks remain within the scope of the new regulation.
• Administrators outside the scope of the rules will be able to request the voluntary application of the rules (opt-in), under certain conditions.
• Administrators of EU Climate Transition Benchmarks and EU Paris-Aligned Benchmarks must be registered, authorised, recognised, or endorsed to ensure regulatory oversight and prevent misleading ESG claims.
• A specific exemption regime for spot foreign exchange benchmarks.

The implementing regulation will apply as of 1 January 2026. A timeline for those changes has been published by ESMA:

Next steps

In light of these amendments and in particular, the revised scope, the CSSF expects UCIs and IFMs that qualify as benchmark users to ensure they comply with the amended EU Benchmarks Regulation. However, the CSSF recognises that UCIs and IFMs are dependent on the update of the ESMA register (to clarify benchmark administrators’ status) and on the related transitional arrangements (including opt-in regime). Therefore, the CSSF expects prospectus updates, if any, to be incorporated into the next update of the prospectus.

The CSSF forms are currently undergoing revisions to incorporate minor updates.