On 10 June 2015, the Fair and Effective Markets Review (“FEMR”) published its Final Report on the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities (“FICC”) markets. The Review was launched in June 2014 to cover the following areas: ·         Trading practices ·         Scope of regulation ·         Impact of recent and forthcoming regulation ·         Supervision As an interim […]

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 EBA/ESAs have launched a second consultation on the draft RTS on rules for uncleared margin under EMIR. The consultation contains a number of material changes as a consequence of industry feedback from its April 2014 predecessor. A short summary of the most notable revisions follows: 3rd Country NFC- exemption. Non-EU, non-financial companies that are […]

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 EC has published a speech by Jonathan Hill, its financial markets chief, introducing the public hearing of the EMIR review, as previewed here. Lord Hill took the opportunity to indicate a number of new milestones on the long and winding road of EMIR implementation- summarised below: The Commission has finalised its discussions with ESMA […]

ISDA have published market practice guidance to assist market participants with EMIR Art. 13 obligations with respect to portfolio compression. The guidance consists of two documents, both of which are works in progress: Step by step overview for the EMIR portfolio compression requirements Product feasibility matrix using the ISDA taxonomy outlining products eligible for compression […]

The EC has published a consultation seeking input on the implementation of, and “user-experience” to date with  EMIR- providing input into the Commission’s broader review of the regulation.The custom questionnaire may be found here. A public hearing will be held at the Commission’s offices in Brussels on 29 May 2015. The deadline for comments and form […]

ESMA yesterday published it fourth consultation paper on the EMIR clearing obligation. The consultation seeks feedback on an extension to the clearing RTS for interest rate swaps, the “final” draft of which was published 0n 1 October 2014. The consultation proposes to add the following classes and currencies to mandatory clearing: Vanilla fixed-to-floating IRS in: CZK, DKK, HUF, […]

ESMA has today recognised ten third-country CCPs as authorised to offer services and activities in the Union. Each CCP comes from four jurisdictions previously assessed as equivalent by the EC. The full list includes the classes of financial instruments covered by the recognition. A short summary follows: Australia: ASX Clear (Futures) Pty Limited, ASX Clear […]