The move is a sign of how hard-pressed regulators are struggling to implement on time a welter of reforms called for by world leaders during the financial crisis.
One set of new rules being phased in aims to make derivatives like credit default swaps and interest rate swaps safer after taxpayers were forced to bail out banks in 2008 that held large amounts of them. The Paris-based European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), has asked the European Parliament in a letter if it could levy an undisclosed fee on clearing houses, also known as central counterparties or CCPs, from outside the EU.
ESMA Chairman Steven Maijoor said in the letter that the watchdog will have to vet each foreign clearing house that wants to operate in the EU. But this task will be "much more burdensome than originally expected" and with "significant budget implications", the letter said.
It had anticipated seven foreign clearers to request authorisation during this year and next but the watchdog has already received applications from 34 non-EU clearing houses, none of which was named in the letter.
Europe's top EU-based clearers include LCH.Clearnet and Eurex Clearing, but are set to face competition from foreign rivals seeking to benefit from the new clearing requirements now being phased in.
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