EU: EMIR regulatory technical standards to come into force from 15 March 2013

The regulatory technical standards (RTS) supplementing the Regulation on the treatment of OTC derivatives and central counterparties (EMIR) were published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).  Save as set out below, the following RTS will enter into force on the twentieth day following their publication in the OJEU on 23 February 2013 - so from Friday 15 March 2013:    

• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 148/2013 - Minimum details of the data to be reported to trade repositories;
• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 149/2013 - Indirect clearing arrangements, the clearing obligation, the public register, access to a trading venue, non-financial counterparties, and risk mitigation techniques for OTC derivatives contracts not cleared by a CCP:
  • In particular the requirement for electronic confirmations in Article 12 will come into force from 15 March 2013
  • Articles 13 (portfolio reconciliation), 14 (portfolio compression) and 15 (dispute resolution, including reporting requirement) will come into application 6 months after the date of entry into force of this Regulation, so from 15 September 2013;
• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 150/2013 - Details of the application for registration as a trade repository;
• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 151/2013 - Data to be published and made available by trade repositories and operational standards for aggregating, comparing and accessing the data;
• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 152/2013 - Capital requirements for central counterparties;
• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 153/2013 - Requirements for central counterparties:
  • Section 2, paragraph 1(h) of Annex I relating to the requirement for collateral backing for bank guarantees (in respect of transactions in derivatives relating to electricity or natural gas produced, traded or delivered in the EU or to the transportation of electricity or natural gas in the EU) will come into application 3 years after the date of entry into force of the Regulation (so 15 March 2016).

For further background on these regulatory technical standards, see our earlier briefing.  See also the FAQs published by the EC on 8 February. 

ESMA has updated its EMIR webpage (as of 15 March 2013) and has made available templates for the notification to ESMA when a  non-financial counterparties exceeds the clearing threshold (Article 10(1) (a) of EMIR):

• Notification from non-financial counterparty to ESMA of exceeding the clearing threshold
• Notification from non-financial counterparty to ESMA of no longer exceeding the clearing threshold

It has also produced a quick guide to EMIR for non-financial companies.