ESMA European Securities and Markets Authority : publishes opinion on draft RTS on the clearing obligation for interest rate swaps

29/01/2015

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has today published an Opinion on the Draft RTS on the Clearing Obligation on Interest Rate Swaps. This is in response to the European Commission's notification of 18 December 2014 of its intention to endorse, with amendments, the draft RTS submitted by EMSA on 1 October 2014.

In accordance with the ESMA Regulation, within a period of six weeks from this notification, ESMA may amend the draft RTS and resubmit it in the form of a formal opinion to the Commission. The opinion addresses a number of those changes introduced by the Commission.

In particular, the opinion explains ESMA's support of the Commission's intention to extend the initial approach with the objective of postponing the start date of the frontloading obligation, as this should provide counterparties with sufficient time to determine whether their contracts are subject to the frontloading obligation.

However, the opinion also raises some concerns on the process envisaged to exempt non-EU intragroup transactions from the clearing obligation. ESMA is ready to provide technical advice on this particular issue, if requested, in order to find an alternative solution, both in the interest of an efficient implementation and to avoid any delays in the roll-out of the clearing obligation.

2015/223 Opinion