17 July 2015

ESMA publishes responses received to consultation on clearing obligation

Deutsche Bank

Given the absence of clearing obligations for the classes under consideration in other major markets it would not be appropriate to move forward with the proposed mandate at this time. Achieving international consistency must be one of the most important considerations when determining mandatory clearing obligations.

The counterparty classification system should be consistent across all the classes –both those currently being consulted on and those likely to be subject to future consultation. If ESMA decides to proceed with a clearing mandate for the classes under consideration notwithstanding the above concern then a realignment of the proposal is required, such that it is consistent with the draft clearing mandate for interest rate swaps (IRS) in G4 currencies and Credit Default Swaps (CDS).

While ESMA has made important proposals to address frontloading challenges, its scope should be reduced to a minimum. Frontloading was originally envisaged to facilitate the quick start to clearing and the consequent reduction in systemic risk.

However, it has raised a number of legal, operational and pricing difficulties. Given the time it has taken to address these challenges and the resulting delay to the start of clearing, frontloading could be viewed as being counterproductive to its original objective.

Full Deutsche Bank response

ECBC

Covered bond legislation is specifically designed to protect the market against financial turmoil. Therefore, we welcome the fact that the ESMA has acknowledged the special features of covered bond-related derivatives and allowed for such derivatives to be excluded from the clearing obligation by outlining specific conditions that have to be met. We consider the exclusion of this relief to be essential to the proper functioning of the covered bond derivatives and covered bond programmes in general.

The ECBC supports the idea of using an EU-harmonised classification of covered bonds as it ensures adequate and equal privileges for this class of financial instruments. The success of covered bonds in Europe lies in the Industry’s capacity to respond to the challenges of the current crisis, its ability to share best market practices - thereby allowing thecontinuous fine-tuning of European covered bond legislation, helping to significantly increase the transparency and contributing to a principle-based harmonisation of the asset class.

Full ECBC response

European Association of CCP Clearing Houses (EACH)

EACH supports ESMA’s proposal for a phased-in implementation of the clearing obligation for the EEA currencies. However, should ESMA decide to align as much as possible the timeline for the implementation of the clearing obligation for the EEA currencies with that of the G4 currencies IRS, EACH would support it.  CCPs would indeed be able to handle the extra volume associated with a clearing obligation earlier than the proposed dates for the different categories.

EACH supports the approach of considering the overarching aim of reducing systemic risk, in the context of the scale of the economy that is linked to a specific class. In Poland, for example, the majority of turnover volumes and of outstanding positions comes from interest rate derivatives that are settled in PLN. According to the survey of National Bank of Poland, in April 2013, nearly 97% of turnover on the OTC IRD market in Poland was denominated in PLN. Volumes of trading in PLN rate derivatives are very high for the scale of the Polish economy.

Full EACH response

Nasdaq Clearing

Nasdaq Clearing is of the firm opinion that systemic risk should be considered not only at the aggregated EU level, but also at a regional level. It would also argue that systemic risk cannot be measured on a currency level, but should rather be measured on a participant level and that it is important to consider how a financial crisis in one country or region could have knock-on effects in other countries or regions. This is not least true for the Nordic region which has four different currencies, one of them being the euro. Interconnected participant exposures and systemic risk across currencies in the Nordic region and beyond mean that a severe financial crisis in the Nordics would immediately affect the Eurozone area.

Nasdaq Clearing welcomes ESMA’s proposal in relation to DKK, NOK and SEK instruments and the fact that ESMA has considered the risk of the outstanding notional amounts of interest rate derivatives relative to the size of each relevant currency. Not doing so would underestimate the risk that smaller currencies constitute and therefore increase the aggregated risk within the EU. Excluding the Nordic currencies from mandatory clearing would lead to less clearing and transparency in the financial system in the region. In such a scenario, severe disturbances in the financial markets of the region would most likely have serious knock-on effects on the Euro zone area.

Full Nasdaq response

All responses

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