FIA, together with the Investment Association (IA) has submitted its response to ESMA's Consultation on Indirect Clearing Arrangements under EMIR and MiFIR. These comments take into account the views of an indirect clearing working group of FIA Europe's members, including clearing members and some CCPs, with which IA fully agrees and endorses.
For ease of review, the response covers:
- Part I – A description of our key issues regarding the current draft of the RTS under MiFIR and a summary of the proposed solutions;
- Part II – A proposed revised draft of the RTS under MiFIR (the "Revised Draft RTS")which addresses our concerns with the current draft RTS and seeks to provide a robust and workable indirect clearing regime for exchange-traded derivatives ("ETD");
- Part III – A commentary table setting out in detail the basis for each of the amendments we propose in the Revised Draft RTS; and
- Annex – A summary of our responses to the questions posed in the CP.
Our comments are limited to the draft RTS under MiFIR, which will apply in respect of indirect clearing arrangements for ETD. With respect to indirect clearing of OTC derivatives, we have had the opportunity to review the responses of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc., and fully support those comments. We note that whilst we understand that ESMA is mandated to ensure consistency of the RTS on indirect clearing under MiFIR with those under EMIR, we do not think this should require the two sets of RTS to be identical in every respect. Indeed, we consider that certain differences between the RTS on indirect clearing under MiFIR and EMIR will be necessary to ensure that they are suitable for the indirect clearing of ETD and OTC derivatives respectively.
