LONDON, April 23, 2024 Press release - Fastmarkets, one of the industry-leading cross-commodity price-reporting agencies (PRA), announced today that it has completed its annual review of its adherence to the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Principles for Commodity Benchmarks of its key forest products prices.

The review was conducted by independent global accounting and professional services firm BDO and found that, as of March 31, 2024, Fastmarkets’ governance framework and control activities were in line with the Principles for Oil PRAs set out by IOSCO in 2012.

The IOSCO principles create an overarching framework for benchmarks, articulating guidance and principles ensuring transparency and openness. The assurance review process examines a firm’s governance and controls framework, policies and methodologies in scope to verify their adherence to PRA principles.

As stated by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), this external assurance review is sufficient to demonstrate compliance with the audit requirements of the EU Benchmark Regulation (BMR) for commodity benchmarks (Paragraph 18 of Annex II).

The price assessments reviewed include some administered by Fastmarkets Benchmark Administration Oy (FBA Oy), which was incorporated in Finland in December 2020 to administer all benchmarks that are in the scope of the BMR.

“We are pleased with the outcome of this annual external assurance review of our governance framework, illustrating our longstanding commitment to providing and evolving best practices in price reporting across our business. Providing our customers with dependable prices backed by reliable methodologies is at the heart of what we do,’’ Fastmarkets CEO Raju Daswani said.

To obtain a copy of the independent assurance reports and to view Fastmarkets’ price methodology/specifications, click here.