EFAMA is pleased to share the link to the educational webinar it organised on 14 June with leading buy-side clearing experts, including Allianz Global Investors, Aviva Investors, BlackRock and Nordea Asset Management, to discuss the main findings of EFAMA's recent analysis on mandated active accounts for EU clearing.

Panelists expressed the view that EU CCP volume would most benefit from organic growth driven by expedited regulatory processes and additional requirements on margin model transparency. To avoid building a monopoly in Europe as a result of active accounts, it was felt that EU CCPs should strive to attract global clearing flows to ensure balanced and sustainable growth. Mandated clearing according to some of the experts could lead to a widening basis against other CCPs, exacerbating liquidity pressures, especially in times of market stress. Without a free choice to clear where the best prices and netting benefits were available, asset managers also expect to struggle in delivering best execution to clients. This would lead to discrimination or unfair treatment of clients. The lack of a proper impact assessment on the active accounts proposal and the accompanying splitting of liquidity pools, leaves it unclear how this would result in a reduction of systemic risk.

Pierre-Antoine Masset of Nordea Asset Management said: “Active accounts fundamentally amount to an import tax applied to clearing clients.  The new liquidity on an EU CCP would come at a cost as clearing brokers will have to first find and margin for the opposite side of the trade on a non-EU CCP before clearing on the EU CCP.”

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Note to editors :

You can read our latest detailed position paper here.

You can access a recording of our webinar here.

You can find additional information on ESMA’s consultation on EMIR 3.0 here.

For further information, please contact:

Hayley McEwen

Head of Communication & Membership Development

Tel: +32 2 548 26 52

Email: Hayley.McEwen@efama.org