The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued final draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) related to derivative transactions by non-European Union (EU) counterparties. The RTS implement provisions of the Regulation on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories (EMIR).

ESMA delivers second set of advice on EMIR equivalence Following its technical advice published on 9 September 2013, the European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) has published a supplement to its advice to the European Commission on the equivalence of the regulatory regime for central counterparties (CCPs) of Japan with the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). This supplement to the September 2013 Final report sets out ESMA’s advice to the European Commission is in respect of the equivalence between the Japanese regulatory regime for commodity CCPs and the regulatory regime for CCPs under EMIR. ESMA proposes conditional equivalence As for ESMA’s advice to the Commission in respect of Japan for CCPs which clear transactions relating to securities, currencies, interest rates, credit, weather, GDP and other indices, ESMA considers that the Japanese regulatory regime for commodity CCPs contains legal provisions and involves supervision and enforcement similar to that of EMIR. The Commission is expected to use ESMA’s technical advice to prepare possible equivalence decisions. Where it adopts such a decision, certain provisions of EMIR may be disapplied in favour of equivalent third-country rules. In particular, ESMA may recognise within the EU a CCP which is authorised outside the EU. The different pieces of advice are available on ESMA’s website.

On 14 January 2013 ESMA received a formal request from the European Commission (the Commission) to provide technical advice to assist the Commission in formulating a Regulation on fees for Trade Repositories (TRs) by a delegated act. In order to deliver its advice to the Commission, ESMA consulted market participants regarding the proposed fee structures for registration, supervision and recognition of TRs. Respondents to this consultation were encouraged to provide the relevant data to support their arguments or proposals.Given the time period established for providing this advice, ESMA was compelled to require responses to the consultation within a short timeframe. In total, ESMA received 8 responses to the consultation. Non-confidential responses can be found on ESMA’s website. ESMA would like to thank respondents for providing input given the short period ESMA was able to consult for. This document sets out a summary of the responses received by ESMA regarding the fee structure for registration, supervision and recognition of TRs in the EU and includes ESMA’s final technical advice to the Commission on the future Regulation on fees for TRs which will be adopted by the Commission in the form of a delegated act. It is worth noting that all major ESMA proposals were supported by respondents and where comments were received ESMA has considered how best to adjust the original proposals. Next steps ESMA will follow-up on this work with the Commission as they work on the adoption of the Commission delegated regulation on fees for TRs.

This version of the advice includes the following clarifications with respect to the assessment of the Isle of Man:

• the Isle of Man underwent an assessment by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2003 and 2009 as part of the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP); and
• the self-assessment carried out by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority in 2013 was an assisted self-assessment.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has sent the European Commission a Final Report proposing an amendment to Article 5 of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No.1247/2012 (ITS on reporting) on the format and frequency of reporting to trade repositories under EMIR. The amendment relates specifically to the reporting of exchange traded derivatives (ETDs) and proposes postponing the reporting start date by one year. Background Article 5 regards the reporting start date of derivatives to trade repositories, however the current dates do not include a specification of ETDs. This specification would be useful as there is a risk currently that reporting of ETDs is not harmonised unless further regulatory guidance is issued. Based on the need to ensure the consistent implementation of EMIR, ESMA considered that guidelines and recommendations should be developed in relation to this issue. A delay in the reporting date for ETD transactions will allow sufficient time for the development of the relevant guidelines and their implementation by counterparties, trade repositories and regulators. The European Commission has three months to decide whether to endorse ESMA’s draft implementing technical standards.