Argus successfully completes independent assurance review recommended by IOSCO

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Oct 11, 2013, 09:33 ET

LONDON, Oct. 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Argus Media, a leading international energy and commodity price reporting agency (PRA), is pleased to announce the successful completion of an independent external assurance review.

An independent review is required by international regulators in order to satisfy Iosco's Principles for Oil Price Reporting Agencies (the PRA Principles). Argus Media has prepared a statement describing the policies and procedures it has in place to meet each requirement of the Iosco PRA Principles and that statement has been independently reviewed by professional services firm PwC.

Adrian Binks, Chairman and CEO of Argus Media said, "We are delighted with the outcome of this detailed independent review of Argus' oil benchmarks. The review forms part of our longstanding commitment to identifying and adopting best practice in commodity price reporting across our business. Argus has undertaken to apply these best practices to all its commodity benchmarks and will therefore also subject all its non-oil benchmarks to an independent review by PwC."

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (Iosco) published its principles for oil price reporting agencies in October 2012. These PRA Principles were endorsed by the G20 in November 2012. They cover governance, control, quality, integrity and conflict management in relation to commodity benchmark price assessments published by PRAs. One of the requirements is an annual external audit, which Argus Media has met under the PwC review.

Argus Media's description of its policies and procedures together with the full assurance review report are available at www.argusmedia.com/About-Argus/How-We-Work

The Iosco PRA Principles are available at www.iosco.org/library/pubdocs/pdf/IOSCOPD391.pdf

About Argus Media
Argus Media is an independent media organisation with more than 500 full time staff. It is headquartered in London and has offices in each of the world's principal commodity centres. Its main activities comprise publishing market reports containing price assessments, market commentary and news, and business intelligence reports that analyse market and industry trends.

More than half of Argus Media employees are commodity journalists who specialise in reporting news and price information relating to physical energy and related commodity markets. They operate according to a rigorous Editorial Code of Conduct and an Ethics Policy that align with best journalistic practice, including the avoidance of conflicts of interest.

Argus Media is a leading provider of data on prices and fundamentals, news, analysis, consultancy services and conferences for the global crude, oil products, natural gas, electricity, coal, emissions, bioenergy, fertilizer, petrochemical, metals and transportation industries. Data provided by Argus Media are widely used for indexation of physical trade. Companies, governments and international agencies use Argus Media information for analysis and planning purposes.

Argus Media has 19 offices globally, including London, Houston, Washington, New York, Calgary, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Dubai, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Moscow, Astana and other key centres of the commodity industries. Argus Media was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company. Visit: www.argusmedia.com