Leading Fuel and Energy Commodity Price Reporting Agencies Successfully Complete the IOSCO Assurance Review and BMR Assurance Review

January 19, 2022 at 08:00 AM EST

OPIS and Coal, Metals and Mining (CMM), world leaders in critical information, analytics and solutions, are pleased to announce that they have successfully completed a joint IOSCO assurance review—OPIS for its commodity, energy, renewables benchmarks for the ninth year and CMM for its McCloskey coal benchmarks for the seventh year—in accordance with the IOSCO Principles for Oils Price Reporting (IOSCO Principles).

OPIS and CMM sit in the Energy and Natural Resources division of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, and have their benchmarks administrated by IHS Markit Benchmark Administration Limited (IMBA). IMBA is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority as a benchmark administrator.

OPIS and CMM decided to combine their assurance responses to a single report for the first time this year under the 2021 assurance review, demonstrating their continued commitment to the IOSCO Principles and its robust compliance framework and controls.

The 2021 report includes the OPIS and CMM management responses to show how each business satisfies the IOSCO Principles. Describing the policies, processes and control activities governing the assessment process for the creation of commodity benchmarks. The report includes the findings of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), which independently reviewed and tested those responses for both businesses.

“Whilst this last year continued to be a challenge to many around the world navigating the on-going global pandemic, we are proud to successfully complete our ninth assurance review against IOSCO principles,” said Steve Tan, vice president, strategic content, OPIS.

“This has been possible due to a clear commitment to ensure we keep our customers and the markets informed and that we are at the forefront of providing transparency, by having a consistent focus on ensuring the price discovery process is robust and providing timely, up-to-date accurate and reliable benchmarks and market information,” said Tan. “All are a testament to the strength and quality of the teams that work within both OPIS and CMM.”

“We are encouraged to know that the compliance frameworks and processes we have implemented, in accordance with the IOSCO Principles, continue to stand firm against challenging times,” added John Howland, vice president, CMM. “Our ability to pivot and adapt ensures that there is no disruption to our businesses. As we deliver high quality data and solutions to our stakeholders, we continuously strive for excellence and make improvements in workflows to meet our commitment to our stakeholders to provide the McCloskey benchmarks in a fair and transparent manner.”

IOSCO finalized its Principles for Oil Price Reporting Agencies in October 2012, which govern the quality, integrity and customer response policies of oil commodity spot market coverage. The IOSCO Principles for Oil Price Reporting Agencies are available here: https://www.iosco.org/library/pubdocs/pdf/IOSCOPD391.pdf

BMR includes a regime specifically for commodity benchmarks traded on a European trading venue, in Annex II. Details of BMR can be found here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32016R1011&from=EN

The IMBA page, including details of the IHS Markit Benchmark Administration Complaints Handling Policy, can be found here: https://ihsmarkit.com/products/benchmark-administration-uk.html

The full OPIS/CMM report including the annual independent assurance review is here: https://notices.opisnet.com/IOSCO

About OPIS (www.opisnet.com)

Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) by IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) provides accurate pricing, real-time news and expert analysis across the global fuel supply chain, including the Spot, Wholesale Rack and Retail markets. OPIS and OPIS PetroChem Wire enable customers to buy and sell oil and gas products with confidence via easy access to transparent data, expert-level customer support, educational events and energy data solutions with Axxis Software and OPIS RetailSuite.

About Coal, Metals & Mining (www.ihsmarkit.com/coal)

Coal, Metals & Mining (CMM) provides the IHS McCloskey price assessments for six major international seaborne traded coal hubs. The coal and metals products and services include real-time news and market alerts, price assessments and indices, newsletters and reports, insights, conferences and events.

About IHS Markit (www.ihsmarkit.com)

IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions for the major industries and markets that drive economies worldwide. The company delivers next-generation information, analytics and solutions to customers in business, finance and government, improving their operational efficiency and providing deep insights that lead to well-informed, confident decisions. IHS Markit has more than 50,000 business and government customers, including 80 percent of the Fortune Global 500 and the world’s leading financial institutions. Headquartered in London, IHS Markit is committed to sustainable, profitable growth.

IHS Markit is a registered trademark of IHS Markit Ltd. and/or its affiliates. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners © 2022 IHS Markit Ltd. All rights reserved.