26. The 2015 Guidelines are structured around the distinction between quarterly and semi-annual reporting requirements. Within these reporting deadlines some flexibility was granted to those CRAs who are not eligible for supervisory fees. However, as explained in Section 3, under the proposed guidelines ESMA is moving to a reporting distinction according to each supervised entities reporting categorisation i.e. "category 1" and "category 2" CRAs.

27. In addition to introducing this distinction in CRAs’ reporting categorisation, the proposed guidelines aim to increase the consistency and usability of the information provided by CRAs. This is done by providing more specific reporting instructions for each reporting requirement as well as standardised reporting templates where possible. The revised proposed guidelines also include new requests for information to further support ESMA’s supervisory processes in an efficient and effective manner. Where an item is a new addition to in comparison with the 2015 Guidelines a **New** identifier has been added to the title of that section.

28. Under the proposed Guidelines the grouping of the reporting requirements have also been updated. The new approach is to have two overarching categories for reporting requirements: "Scheduled" and "Ad-Hoc". Within these two categories the individual reporting items are then grouped according to different modules. This ensures that similar requirements are addressed side by side, allowing for greater transparency as to the information ESMA is requesting.