14 August 2015

ALFI（ルクセンブルク・ファンド業協会）、EMIR（欧州市場インフラ規則）に関する欧州委員会の市中協議へコメント、中央銀行の流動性ファシリティへのアクセス確保が最重要と主張

There are no provisions under EMIR facilitating the access of CCPs authorised under EMIR to additional liquidity from central banks in stress or crisis situations, either from the perspective of the members of the ESCB or from the perspective of CCPs. However, it is recognised that in some member states, CCPs are required to obtain authorisation as credit institutions in accordance with Article 6 of Directive 2006/48/EC. Such authorisation creates access to central bank liquidity for those CCPs. On the other hand, other member states do not require CCPs to obtain such an authorisation.

ALFI considers that it is of utmost importance to ensure an emergency access to central bank liquidity facilities given the fact that only a small number of CCPs exists and therefore risks will be concentrated on these few players.

ALFI would plead for the most flexible solution in setting up rules for margins and collaterals. The reason is that the funds with different investment policies have different portfolios. It is – for example – possible that an equity fund does not have any bonds or even cash in its portfolio. Should margin and collateral rules do not provide for a possibility of equity being eligible credit support, it would be a significant impediment for such a fund. Therefore, the rules should be as broad as possible and include all UCITS eligible assets as eligible credit support. Fine-tuning can be made on the level of the acceptable ratings and mandatory hair-cuts.

Given the fact that ESMA has envisaged the clearing of some instruments only on one CCP which may at best create monopoly situations (even if only temporarily) or hinder potential portability, the later issue is most problematic. At the end of the day, if there is no other CCP offering clearing in the relevant product, moving from one CCP to another is practically impossible.

Full response

© ALFI - Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry