On 12 June 2015 ISDA published its ISDA EMIR Frontloading Additional Termination Event Amendment Agreement. The amendment agreement is another simple but useful addition to ISDA’s documentation suite.  As the name suggests, it allows counterparties to amend 1992 or 2002 ISDA Master Agreement schedules in order to include an Additional Termination Event which triggers in […]

The EC has announced its adoption of an implementing act to extend the transitional period for the application of the CRR to CCPs by a further six months. The Capital Requirements Regulation mandates levels of capital that must be held by EU banking groups against their exposure to central counterparties. The EC had already extended […]

The EU-US standoff over CCP equivalence looks set to continue despite the personal intervention of CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad. Following his two day visit to Brussels this week, armed with charts and calculations, the joint “progress” statement by Chairman Massad and EC Financial Chief Jonathan Hill is notable more for its minimalism than substantive content. […]

On 27 March 2015, ESMA updated its list of CCPs authorised under EMIR. The list now reflects the extension of LCH.Clearnet’s authorisation to include derivative contracts relating to inflation rates or other economic variables, the execution of which takes place on a regulated market. The Public Register was updated on the same day and indicates […]

In a keenly-awaited judgement, the European Court of Justice has ruled that the ECB does not have authority under EU law to oversee CCPs that clear euro-denominated trades. The General Court held that: “The ECB lacks the competence necessary to regulate the activity of securities clearing systems as its competence is limited to payment systems […]

In his keynote address before the Institute of International Bankers, CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad yesterday revisited some familiar themes. Under his leadership, the “new” CFTC cannot be accused of a lack of consistency. It is nevertheless a useful recap of the CFTC’s priorities as they begin the task of “fine-tuning” the discordant Dodd-Frank orchestra. A […]

ESMA yesterday published a letter from the EC’s Director General for Finance Jonathan Faull to his frequent correspondent, ESMA Chairman Steven Maijoor. The letter is a correction to its 18 December 2014 missive, which delineated the amendments necessary to secure the EC’s endorsement of ESMA’s draft RTS on the IRS clearing obligation. The revisions are […]

On 29 January 2015, ESMA released its formal opinion on the draft RTS covering the clearing obligation of interest rate swaps. This is the latest exchange in a ping pong game between ESMA and the European Commission. On 1 October 2014, ESMA originally submitted the draft RTS to the European Commission, but on 18 December […]

On 26 January 2015, ISDA published a position paper on CCP Default Management, Recovery and Continuity: A Proposed Recovery Framework. The proposed framework reiterates the preference for recovery over resolution. Typically, a recovery is led by the CCP itself, while a resolution must be orchestrated by the relevant resolution authority. If the CCP successfully handles its […]