Earlier this week, the Chief Executive of the FCA, Andrew Bailey provided us with a recent update about the current state of affairs regarding Brexit. As is fast becoming the norm in Bailey’s Brexit updates, he opened his speech with the progress that has been made thus far; the Temporary Transitional Power regime; the signing […]

ESMA has published the official register for the Trading Obligation for derivatives under MiFIR.  Although not quite in time for the commencement of the obligation, the register lays out: the derivatives classes subject to the obligation, the applicable trading venues, jurisdictions for which equivalence has been granted and the start dates for Categories 1-4. The register will […]

ESMA has delivered a Christmas surprise in the shape of a six month forbearance period in respect of LEIs under MiFIR. Article 13(2) MiFIR prohibits an investment firm from transacting any reportable trade with a client, without first obtaining their LEI. The gift horse’s dentistry is not entirely flawless, the following condition must be met: […]

On 19 October 2017, ESMA published its “first-time overview” of the EU derivatives market – a study of the size of the EU derivatives market based on aggregated data sourced from the 6 EU-authorised trade repositories. The analysis takes the most updated values of all derivatives contracts with open interest at the end of 24 […]

On 13 October 2017, the CTC and the EU announced substituted compliance determinations in respect of margin requirements for OTC derivatives. The determinations accept that the CFTC’s Final Margin Rule and EMIR’s risk mitigation and margin requirements are sufficiently comparable on a substantive outcomes basis. For those interested in reading the full text, we recommend […]

Introduction On 28 September 2017, the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) submitted its final report containing draft Regulatory Technical Standards (“RTS”) on the trading obligation for derivatives under MiFIR with respect to interest rate swaps (“IRS”) and credit default swaps (“CDS”) to the European Commission (“EC”).  The EC has three months to decide whether […]

ESMA has today published a consultation paper requesting responses to a proposal which seeks to provide additional time for market participants with limited volume to comply with the clearing mandate under EMIR. If approved, the proposal would delay the compliance date for Category 3 entities by two years. Category 3 comprises FCs and NFC + AIFs […]

On 11 March 2016, as part of its consultations on Level 2 measures under the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR), the European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) published a Discussion Paper incorporating draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) and Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on transaction reporting under the SFTR. At 187 pages and posing 145 questions, […]

The only recently-acknowledged elephant of EU-US CCP lack of equivalence is one step closer to leaving the room. The European Commission has today granted the CFTC status as an equivalent regulatory regime for CCPs. The determination will be effected by a legally-binding implementing act in accordance with Article 25(6) EMIR. The decision follows the 10 […]