EFAMA has today published its response to the European Commission’s EMIR 3.0 proposal. We support the EC’s goal of increasing the attractiveness of EU central clearing counterparties (CCPs), including simplified product approvals, faster model change authorisations, and greater margin model transparency. A new clearing threshold calculation is also proposed, which further aligns the Clearing Obligation with the rest of the EMIR regulation.
EFAMA welcomes the opportunity to respond to the EC’s targeted consultation on the EU’s central clearing framework. We are pleased to find in this consultation document a fair reflection of the complexity of the CCP ecosystem and consistency with the issues raised in previous dialogues held with the European Commission. In that same spirit, we hope in our response to provide feedback that resonates with the EC’s broader policy objectives while minimizing systemic risk and undue harm to our industry.
The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) welcomes the opportunity to respond to this important review of RTS 153/2013 and accompanying guidelines, in light of the procyclicality witnessed during the peak volatility of the Covid crisis. European CCPs already have standard anti-procyclicality tools in their rulebooks and this did lead to less volatile moves in margin in Europe versus other jurisdictions.
For asset managers the main issue continues to be the reclassification of ETDs as OTCs as a result of the non-equivalence of UK regulated markets. While we understand that a review is legally mandated at this point in time, we do not see value in recalibrating the various thresholds or making changes to the calculation methodologies unless these are in the two areas we define below. Our main concern revolves around the fact that changes would carry significant compliance costs while making little impact on the population of counterparties and notional captured by the thresholds.
“Oliver Wyman’s study ‘Caught on Tape’ provides a perplexing take on Consolidated Tape for Europe. Sure enough, it starts with accurate observations: the high number of trading venues in Europe, the resultant fragmented liquidity, unseen liquidity due to the lack of a consolidated tape, and the fact that leading markets like the US and Canada today benefit from a real time consolidated tape.
Nine associations (AFME, AIMA, EAPB, EBF, EFAMA, FIA, ICI, ISDA, SIFMA AMG) welcome the Commission's decision to grant a time-limited equivalence decision in respect of UK CCPs. However, when this time-limited equivalence decision expires on 30 June 2022, there remains a significant risk of disruption to clearing for EU firms and to their access to global markets.
