On September 3, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its advice to the European Commission (the Commission) on the equivalence of the regulatory regimes of Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States under EMIR.  EMIR is the Regulation applicable to OTC derivative transactions, central counterparties (CCPs) and trade repositories (TRs) (Regulation 648/2012)).

The rules of these countries, covering central clearing, CCPs, TRs and non-financial counterparties and risk mitigation techniques for uncleared trades, were compared with the requirements under EMIR.  The supplementary press release proposes conditional equivalence for the following regimes:

• CCPs – Honk Kong, Singapore and the United States;
• Central clearing, requirements for non-financial counterparties and risk mitigation techniques for uncleared trades – Japan and the United States; and
• TRs – the United States.

ESMA’s technical advice should be used by the Commission when preparing any possible equivalence decisions.

ESMA will deliver advice on areas it has not yet covered for Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland by October 1.  A letter dated September 2 from ESMA Chair Steven Maijoor to Commission Director General of Internal Market and Services Jonathan Faull includes further guidance and detail on the technical advice for certain countries, including the United States.