Brussels, 11/01/2010 (Agence Europe) - In a letter sent out last week to the European Commission, the European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT) expressed concern at the legislative initiative due out next summer for managing central clearing houses responsible for financial derivatives and imposing additional capital requirements for exchanging non-standard derivatives over-the-counter (EUROPE 9999). EACT declared: “We strongly urge you to preserve the ability of companies to manage their financial and market risk exposure by ensuring continued access to reasonably priced and customised over-the-counter derivative products”. The organisation said that it was very disappointed by the proposed reforms, which will disadvantage companies using these techniques to hedge the impact of movements in currencies, interest rates, commodity and other prices. According to the EACT, use of central clearing houses for standard derivatives will, “increase liquidity risk and funding costs” and impact on the ability of companies affected to invest and, ultimately, create jobs. The letter was signed by companies including Volkswagen, Telefónica, Lufthansa, Sanofi-Aventis and ABB. (M.B./transl.fl)