Fastmarkets successfully completes IOSCO assurance review of 34 metals benchmarks

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Sep 21, 2021, 03:00 ET

LONDON, Sept. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fastmarkets, the industry-leading cross-commodity price reporting agency (PRA), is delighted to announce the successful completion of an independent assurance review of 34 key metals benchmarks.

The external review carried out by professional services firm BDO confirmed that Fastmarkets' governance and controls framework, policies and editorial practices align with the standards defined by the International Organization of Securities Commission (IOSCO) within the Principles for Oil Price Reporting Agencies (PRAs).

The review process, covering a pricing period of up to 12 months, is comprehensive, examining all relevant documentation and processes to ensure their quality, integrity and adherence to stated methodologies and to the PRA principles.

''We remain committed to growing our list of audited prices and providing our users the highest possible level of confidence in the reliability of our benchmarks. The completion of an external audit of our process demonstrates our commitment to provide reliable, impartial, representative and transparent benchmarks,'' Fastmarkets' CEO Raju Daswani said.

As per guidance by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), annual assurance reviews by an independent external auditor are sufficient to demonstrate compliance with the requirements of the Benchmarks Regulation (BMR) for commodity benchmarks (paragraph 18 of Annex II). Some of the audited prices are also subject to BMR.

This year's review covered 34 benchmarks from our list of prices in the aluminium, alumina, cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese, iron ore, flat steel and steel scrap markets. It involved six new prices, which received the Type 1 IOSCO accreditation including:

Aluminium pressure diecasting ingot DIN226/A380, delivered Europe, €/tonne
Aluminium alloy A380.1, delivered Midwest c/lb $/tonne
Cobalt hydroxide index 30% Co min, cif China, $/Ib
Steel cold-rolled coil, fob mill US, $/cwt
Steel hot-dipped galvanized (base) steel coil, fob mill US, $/cwt
Steel cut-to-length plate carbon grade, fob mill US, $/cwt

To obtain a copy of the independent assurance report, please click here.

Fastmarkets has invested significantly in resources and technology to ensure its price-assessment process aligns with IOSCO principles. View details here.

To view Fastmarkets' metals price methodology/specifications, please click here.

ABOUT FASTMARKETS
Fastmarkets is the industry-leading Price Reporting Agency (PRA) for global commodities, providing price data, news, analytics, and events for the metals and mining, forest products, and agriculture markets. Fastmarkets' data is critical for customers seeking to understand and predict dynamic, sometimes opaque markets, enabling trading and risk management. Fastmarkets is a global business with a 130-year history built on trust and deep market knowledge. Its team of more than 450 people are located in global offices including London, Helsinki, Boston, New York, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Brussels and São Paulo. Fastmarkets is part of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC (LSE:ERM), a listed company on the London Stock Exchange. Euromoney is a leading international business-to-business information group focused primarily on the global commodities, banking and asset management markets.

SOURCE Fastmarkets