Clearing for Non-Financial Counterparties to be Phased in Over Three Years

On 8 February 2013, following the approval by the EU Parliament of the draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) made pursuant to EMIR, the EU Commission published a declaration regarding implementation of the RTS.

The Commission noted the Parliament’s concerns and has stated that:

• the obligation for non-financial firms to clear will be phased-in over “an appropriate period of time”, the suggestion being that this period will be similar to the one proposed in the RTS for bank guarantees (i.e. over a period of 3 years); and
• it will clarify the application of the confirmation deadline standards referred to in Article 11(1)(a) of EMIR, particularly the use of manual, rather than electronic, methods of confirmation by non-financial counterparties.

More generally, the Commission seems to have accepted some of the concerns raised by the Parliament regarding the approval process for EU delegated acts such as the RTS and has recognised the need to develop better working practices with the Parliament going forward.

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