ESMA clarifies its interest rate swaps clearing standards
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has today published a revised opinion on its draft Regulatory Technical Standard (RTS) on the clearing obligation for Interest Rate Swaps (IRS). ESMA’s draft IRS RTS had originally been sent for endorsement to the European Commission by 1 October 2014. On 29 January 2015, the Commission responded with a corrigendum notification, which informed ESMA of its intention to endorse the draft RTS with amendments. Today’s opinion revises ESMA’s earlier opinion published on 29 January 2015. However, besides incorporating practical issues raised by the Commission corrigendum notification, the revised opinion does not introduce material changes compared to the original opinion nor were the actual draft IRS RTS modified.
The document 2015/511 is available here.