ACER have today issued the 4th version of their guidance on REMIT which can be found here. The non binding guidance provides ACER’s view on how many aspects of REMIT are to be interpreted. This 4th version focuses on the rules around monitoring.

The monitoring obligations under REMIT are found in Article 15 and apply to OMPs, trade matching systems and “PPAT”s, Professional Persons Arranging Transactions. The additions to the guidance in section 9.2 consolidates advice given in a note last year about who a PPAT is. The guidance then goes on to indicate not only when suspicious transaction reports should be submitted but also gives prescriptive  guidance as to the correct organisational structure for a monitoring department.

While not all market participants are PPATs, many more are “PPAET”s under MAR (Professional Person Arranging and Executing Transactions). Many market participants will need to have effective monitoring capabilities in place from July 3rd onward when MAR starts.

This guidance comes at a time when many in the market are looking to improve their effective monitoring capability via improvements in technology and processes. The focus comes from a variety of sources, including the start of MAR and  the collection of REMIT data by ACER (which will ultimately lead to monitoring by ACER and the NRAs).

At the end of May, ESMA released a 1 entry questions and answers document on MAR, highlighting the fact that many non financial companies would be covered by the monitoring requirements. This note now adds to the “anti abuse” focus, this time from energy regulators. This focus has also prompted ETR Advisory an Entrima to rerun their effective monitoring course.

The signs are therefore that regulators will continue to scrutinise the energy and commodities markets’ anti abuse capabilities.