ESMA_QA_2839
Status: ✅ Answer Published
Link to ESMA Q&A tool: https://www.esma.europa.eu/publications-data/questions-answers/2839
Regulatory Context
Regulation : MAR
Level 1 Regulation: Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 - Market Intergrity
Level 2 Regulation: Regulation 2016/957- RTS on arrangements, systems, procedures and notification templates for preventing, detecting and reporting abusive practices or reporting suspicious orders or transactions
Level 3 Regulation: No information available
Topic: Prevention and detection of market abuse, including STORs
Subject Matter: Annually conducted audit under Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/957
Question
Submission Date: 30 April 2026
Under Article 2(5)(b) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/957 (“RTS on STORs”), should the annually conducted audit of arrangements, systems and procedures be performed by an external auditor, or would an internal audit be sufficient? How should the “internal review” mentioned alongside the audit be understood?
ESMA Answer
Answer Date: 08-05-2026
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/957 does not explicitly specify whether the annual audit should be external or internal. Therefore, Persons Professionally Arranging or Executing Transactions (PPAETs) and trading venues may conduct the required annual audit either internally or externally. If it is carried out internally, the audit is expected to be performed by an independent function. It is also worth noting that the reference to an internal review should be understood as a complementary exercise to the audit.
This document was automatically extracted from the ESMA EMIR Q&A database.