On 9 January 2015, CME Clearing Europe Ltd became the first central counterparty (CCP) to be granted an extension of authorisation under EMIR. The extension covers assets that are not MiFID financial instruments, specifically Commodities, Emission/Climatic, Freight. Only European Commodity Clearing and Keler CCP have also been authorised for this class.    

ESMA have published a letter received yesterday from the EC’s Director General Jonathan Faull, clarifying desired changes to the Clearing RTS. Controversial , and probably unworkable, frontloading obligations will no longer be “backdated”. The letter proposes that frontloading should begin two months after the publication of the RTS for Category 1 clients, and five months […]

The FCA has updated its webpage, outlining its supervisory priorities arising from EMIR for 2015. Forthcoming areas of focus will include; Counterparty compliance for trade reporting. Connectivity or delegated reporting should have been established, appropriate LEI’s should have been acquired and preparations made for their renewal Clearing Member compliance with Article 39 EMIR in respect […]

Holland Clearing House (HCH) has been authorised as the second Dutch CCP under EMIR, becoming the 15th CCP to date. HCH acts as the clearer for TOM MTF . As always, the full list is available on the ESMA public register.

To the surprise of no-one, the EC has today confirmed that the QCCP deadline has been extended by six months to 15 June 2015. The extension has been effected by the adoption of an implementing regulation, the text of which remains to be finalised. The press release notes that the extension applies both to EU […]

ISDA has joined the swelling chorus of the concerned about CCPs, issuing “Principles for CCP Recovery”, a short document outlining five recovery and resolution issues. Its first page introduces a new financial acronym- PONV- “point of non-viability”[1], essentially the trigger point for resolution. ISDA’s chief executive Scott O’Malia said, “This is a debate about what […]

On Friday, ESMA published the responses it received to the third consultation paper on the clearing obligation under EMIR (ESMA/2014/1185).  The consultation paper outlines the regulatory technical standards (RTS) on foreign-exchange non-deliverable forwards (FX NDF) under Article 5(2) of EMIR. The proposed structure excludes physically settled FX contracts with cash-settled forwards subject to mandatory clearing […]

The Bank of England yesterday announced that it is widening access to its Sterling Monetary Framework to include broker-dealers and CCPs. “Specifically, from today, those broker-dealers deemed critical to the stability of the UK financial system (designated investment firms) and CCPs that operate in UK markets and are either authorised under EMIR or recognised by […]

Even in its largely neutered form, frontloading continues to cause furrowed brows across the industry. Dealers have belatedly woken up to the implication that the new €8bn. threshold for category 2 firms may require trade-monitoring to begin as early as last Monday. While category 1 (clearing members) remains unchanged, category 2 firms will only be […]