Regulatory and implementing technical standards (RTS and ITS)

Regulatory technical standards (RTS) and implementing technical standards (ITS) are EU legal acts that fill in the technical detail of a Level 1 regulation or directive in financial services. The European Supervisory Authorities (the EBA, ESMA and EIOPA) draft them where the Level 1 text empowers them to, and the European Commission adopts them: RTS as delegated regulations and ITS as implementing regulations. For the EBA, the procedure is set out in Articles 10 to 15 of its founding Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010, and the ESMA and EIOPA regulations mirror it.

The two differ in function and procedure. RTS set substantive technical requirements, and after the Commission adopts one, the European Parliament and the Council have a set period in which to object before it is published. ITS set the conditions for applying rules in practice, such as reporting templates and formats, and have no objection period. Once published in the Official Journal, both are directly binding regulations: they are rules, not guidance.

The route from draft to law is long, and it can reverse. The joint RTS on ICT subcontracting under DORA is the example: the ESAs published their final report on 26 July 2024, the Commission rejected the draft on 21 January 2025 because one article went beyond the DORA empowerment, adopted an amended text on 24 March 2025, and published it as Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/532 on 2 July 2025, applying from 22 July 2025, according to the EBA's page for the standard.

Compliance teams should track technical standards from the consultation paper, not from publication. Drafts change, but a final report often shows the shape of the obligation a year before it applies. The impact assessment template is filled in end to end for this RTS.

This entry is general information, not legal advice.