“ESMA found that Moody’s Germany and Moody’s UK negligently committed two infringements of the CRAR regarding their public announcement of certain ratings and their public disclosure of methodologies used to determine those ratings,” said ESMA.

“These failures concern nineteen ratings issued between June 2011 and December 2013 for nine supranational entities including the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund, the European Stability Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility and the European Union.”

ESMA said the public announcement of 19 ratings issued by Moody’s Germany and Moody’s UK between June 2011 and December 2013 “included no other material sources of public information than press releases.”

It said these announcements failed to indicate the principal methodology used for the ratings decisions and failed to refer to any comprehensive descriptions of the methodology used.

Further, ESMA said the methodology used in each of the 19 ratings issued by Moody’s Germany and Moody’s UK between June 2011 and December 2013 “was not the subject of any separate public disclosure either before or after the public rating announcements.”

This Infringement continued for more than six months.

Moody’s Germany and Moody’s UK may appeal the decision to the Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities.

“Such an appeal does not have suspensive effect, although it is possible for the Board of Appeal to suspend the application of the decision in accordance with Article 60(3) of the CRA Regulation,” said ESMA.