European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR)

In response to the problems in the OTC derivatives market that were highlighted during the financial crisis, the G-20 leaders agreed in Pittsburgh, in September 2009, that: “All standardised OTC derivative contracts should be treated on exchanges or electronic trading platforms, where appropriate, and cleared through central counterparties by end-2012 at the latest. OTC derivative contracts should be reported to trade repositories. Non-centrally cleared contracts should be subject to higher capital requirements”.

At the European level, work has been undertaken by the European Commission who issued its proposal for a Regulation on the European Market Infrastructure (EMIR) in September 2010. The Regulation introduces: (i) a reporting obligation for OTC derivatives; (ii) a clearing obligation for eligible OTC derivatives; (iii) measures to reduce counterparty credit risk and operational risk for bilaterally cleared OTC derivatives; (iv) common rules for central counterparties (CCPs) and for trade repositories; and (v) rules on the establishment of interoperability between CCPs. Information on the Regulation is available via this link to the European Commission website.

ICMA’s responses to the European Commission consultation papers are available below:

9 July 2010
ICMA European Repo Council* response to the European Commission’s consultation concerning ‘Derivatives and Market Infrastructures’

*On 4 December 2015, the name of the European Repo Council (ERC) was changed to the European Repo and Collateral Council (ERCC).