Clifford Chance

EMIR: Amended draft RTS on the clearing obligation

21 January 2015

The EU institutions are expected shortly to finalise their work on the first clearing obligation under the EU regulation on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories (EMIR). The European Commission has proposed amendments to the final draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) on the clearing obligation for OTC interest rate derivatives (IRS) delivered by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and may shortly be in a position formally to adopt the amended RTS.

ESMA has also consulted on the clearing obligations for credit default swaps (CDS) and foreign exchange non-deliverable forwards (FX NDFs). It may be able to deliver final draft RTS to the Commission in the near future, although some additional issues remain outstanding for these asset classes.

Clifford Chance has prepared a briefing on the amended draft RTS on the clearing obligation for IRS which includes an illustrative implementation timeline, a discussion of some of the main implementation issues for firms and a summary of the current EU proposals for mandatory clearing of CDS and FX NDFs.

Download PDF