Opinion of ESMA on the composition of the CCP Colleges

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has today published an opinion on the composition of the CCP Colleges to clarify which authorities qualify as a college member under Article 18(2)(c) of EMIR following the establishment of the SSM and to resulting voting rights.

The opinion clarifies that where the ECB has taken over the direct prudential supervision of any of the clearing members of the CCP that are established in the three Member States with the largest contributions to the default fund of the CCP, it should join the college pursuant to Article 18(2)(c) of EMIR.

 

For your convenience please find below the relevant articles from EMIR.

Article 18(2)(c)

The college shall consist of:

The competent authorities responsible for the supervision of the clearing members of the CCP that are established in the three Member States with the largest contributions to the default fund of the CCP referred to in Article 42 on an aggregate basis over a one-year period;

 

Article 42

Default fund

  1. To limit its credit exposures to its clearing members further, a CCP shall maintain a pre-funded default fund to cover losses that exceed the losses to be covered by margin requirements laid down in Article 41, arising from the default, including the opening of an insolvency procedure, of one or more clearing members. The CCP shall establish a minimum amount below which the size of the default fund is not to fall under any circumstances.
  2. A CCP shall establish the minimum size of contributions to the default fund and the criteria to calculate the contributions of the single clearing members. The contributions shall be proportional to the exposures of each clearing member.
  3. The default fund shall at least enable the CCP to withstand, under extreme but plausible market conditions, the default of the clearing member to which it has the largest exposures or of the second and third largest clearing members, if the sum of their exposures is larger. A CCP shall develop scenarios of extreme but plausible market conditions. The scenarios shall include the most volatile periods that have been experienced by the markets for which the CCP provides its services and a range of potential future scenarios. They shall take into account sudden sales of financial resources and rapid reductions in market liquidity.
  4. A CCP may establish more than one default fund for the different classes of instrument that it clears.
  5. In order to ensure consistent application of this Article, ESMA shall, in close cooperation with the ESCB and after consulting EBA, develop draft regulatory technical standards specifying the framework for defining extreme but plausible market conditions referred to in paragraph 3, that should be used when defining the size of the default fund and the other financial resources referred to in Article 43.