EUROPE: ESMA Guidelines on Stress Test Scenarios under the MMF Regulation

Tuesday June 29 2021

On 29^th June 2021, ESMA published the updated Guidelines on stress test scenarios under the MMF Regulation. The guidelines apply to competent authorities, money market funds and managers of money market funds as defined in the MMF Regulation.

The guidelines apply in relation to Article 28 of the MMF Regulation and establish common reference parameters for the stress test scenarios to be included in the stress tests conducted by MMFs or managers of MMFs in accordance with that Article.

The MMF Regulations establish common reference parameters of the stress test scenarios to be included in the stress tests taking into account the following factors specified in Article 28(1) of the MMF Regulation:

• hypothetical changes in the level of liquidity of the assets held in the portfolio of the MMF;
• hypothetical changes in the level of credit risk of the assets held in the portfolio of the MMF, including credit events and rating events;
• hypothetical movements of the interest rates and exchange rates;
• hypothetical levels of redemption;
• hypothetical widening or narrowing of spreads among indexes to which interest rates of portfolio securities are tied;
• hypothetical macro systemic shocks affecting the economy as a whole.

In accordance with Article 28(7) MMF Regulation, the guidelines will be updated at least every year taking into account the latest market developments. In 2020, section 5 of the guidelines was updated so that managers of MMFs have the information needed to fill in the corresponding fields in the reporting template referred to in Article 37 of the MMF Regulation, as specified by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/708. This information includes specifications on the types of stress tests mentioned in section 5 and their calibration.

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