Taking into account the size, nature, scale and complexity of the activities of the IORPs supervised, Member States shall ensure that the competent authorities monitor the adequacy of the IORPs' credit assessment processes, assess the use of references to credit ratings issued by credit rating agencies as defined in point (b) of Article 3(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (
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), in their investment policies and, where appropriate, encourage mitigation of the impact of such references, with a view to reducing sole and mechanistic reliance on such credit ratings.