Recital 5

(5)According to the second condition, CRAs in the third country must be subject to legally binding rules which are equivalent to those set out in Articles 6 to 12 and Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009, with the exception of Articles 6a, 6b, 8a, 8b, 8c and 11a, point (ba) of point 3 and points 3a and 3b of Section B of Annex I to that Regulation. When assessing the fulfilment of this condition due regard should be paid to Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) No 462/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council ² in respect of the date of application of certain provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009. The Argentinian legal and supervisory framework requires CRAs to be governed by a board of directors, responsible for ensuring sound and prudent management of the CRA, that rating activities are independent and that conflicts of interest are adequately identified, managed, disclosed and eliminated. CRAs must adopt adequate and efficient organisational and administrative arrangements for this purpose and also submit and maintain information on actual and potential conflicts of interest related to the members of the rating committee, members of the board, managers and employees through the Financial Information Highway (‘Autopista de la informacion financiera’). CRAs must establish and maintain a permanent and efficient compliance function which operates independently and reports directly to the board. With regard to organisational processes and procedures, the Argentinian legal and supervisory framework contains detailed rules on outsourcing, record keeping and confidentiality. CRAs are required to perform a review of their rating methodologies, models and key rating assumptions at least once a year and also monitor and revise their ratings at least four times a year. The Argentinian framework contains a wide range of disclosure requirements with regard to credit ratings and rating activities, such as the mandatory use of rating categories, the requirement for credit ratings to be published immediately after the deliberation of the rating committee and for all ratings and their rating reports to be submitted for publication through the Financial Information Highway on CNV's webpage. Therefore, the Argentinian legal and supervisory framework should achieve the same outcomes as Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 in respect of the management of conflicts of interest, the organisational processes and procedures that a CRA needs to have in place, the quality of ratings and of rating methodologies, the disclosure of credit ratings and the general and periodic disclosure of credit rating activities. It thus provides for equivalent protection in terms of integrity, transparency, good governance of CRAs and reliability of the credit rating activities.