Brussels, 19/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 19 December, the European Commission adopted nine regulatory and implementing technical standards to complement the obligations defined under the Regulation on OTC derivatives, central counterparties (CCPs) and trade repositories (the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation - EMIR (see EUROPE 10648). They were developed by the European Supervisory Authorities and all bar one have been endorsed by the European Commission without modification. One technical standard submitted by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on the specific point of colleges for central counterparties (CCP) was not endorsed because of concerns as to the legality of some of the provisions so the Commission will ask ESMA to redraft the standard and it will be adopted at a later stage.
The standards cover indirect clearing arrangements, the clearing obligation procedure, the public register, access to a trading venue, non-financial counterparties, and risk mitigation techniques for OTC derivatives contracts not cleared by a CCP; CCP capital and reserves; minimum details of the data to be reported to trade repositories, as well as the format and frequency of trade reports.
The European Parliament and Council of Ministers now have up to two months to issue any objections they may have about these standards, which will come into force 20 days after publication in the EU Official Journal, but will only apply once the associated regulatory technical standards come into force, since the provisions defined in the implementing acts complement provisions defined in the related regulatory technical standards and are not stand-alone obligations. See: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/financial-markets/derivatives/index_en.htm (MB/transl.fl)