B.C. benchmark administrators must switch to 'reasonable assurance report on controls' for all designated benchmarks

Plain-language summary · AI-assisted · not legal advice

The amendment replaces the previous assurance report categories — limited assurance report on compliance and reasonable assurance report on compliance — with a single standard: a "reasonable assurance report on controls." This new report type focuses on whether an administrator's or contributor's policies, procedures, and controls were properly designed and operated effectively, rather than on direct compliance testing. Designated benchmark administrators (covering critical, interest rate, and commodity benchmarks) and benchmark contributors must engage a public accountant to produce these reports within prescribed timelines — generally delivered to the administrator within 90 days after the applicable period ends, and published and filed with regulators within 100 days. A new ongoing assurance requirement is also introduced for non-critical, non-interest-rate, non-commodity designated benchmarks. Organizations subject to these rules should review their public accountant engagements and confirm they are scoped to meet the new controls-based standard.

Who this affects: designated benchmark administrators · benchmark contributors · public accountants engaged for assurance work · oversight committees of designated benchmarks