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  • Clearing obligation for EEA currency interest rate swaps under EMIR published in the Official Journal of the European Union

    07/20/2016
    A Commission Delegated Regulation supplementing the European Market Infrastructure Regulation with regard to Regulatory Technical Standards on the clearing obligation was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The RTS relates to classes of over the counter (OTC) derivatives that are to be subject to the clearing obligation, and specifies that the following classes will be subject to the clearing obligation under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation: (a) fixed-to-float interest rate swap classes denominated in NOK, PLN and SEK; and (b) forward rate agreement classes denominated in NOK, PLN and SEK. These classes will not include contracts concluded with covered bond issuers or with cover pools for covered bonds, provided that they meet certain conditions set out in the RTS. 

    The RTS also specifies the dates from which the clearing obligation takes effect and the minimum remaining maturities for the purposes of frontloading. Different dates apply for different types of counterparties, which are divided into the following categories: (1) Category 1, comprising clearing members for at least one of the classes of OTC interest rate derivatives subject to clearing (including one of the G4 currencies that are already cleared); (2) Category 2, comprising financial counterparties and alternative investment funds which are not clearing members and have over EUR8 billion gross OTC derivatives; (3) Category 3, comprising financial counterparties and alternative investment funds which are not clearing members and have less than EUR8bn gross OTC derivatives; and (4) Category 4, comprising non-financial counterparties not included in the other categories. The dates for the clearing obligation applicable for counterparties in Categories 2 and 4 were subsequently amended by a corrigendum to the RTS, which was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on July 21, 2016. Taking into account the corrigendum, the effective dates for the clearing obligation are: February 9, 2017 for Category 1; August 9, 2017 for Category 2; February 9, 2018 for Category 3; and August 9, 2019 for Category 4. 

    The RTS will enter into force on August 9, 2016.

    View the RTS.

    View the corrigendum

     
    TOPIC: Derivatives