FIA returned to Frankfurt on 12 July where the industry and regulators gathered to discuss the key issues impacting listed and cleared derivatives market participants.
In the opening remarks, Robbert Booij, Europe chief executive for ABN Amro Clearing Bank, stressed that the relationship between markets and regulators has never been more important.
“That relationship, when it works well, is a shared desire to achieve the best possible outcome – robust, open and efficient markets – by working in tandem,” he said.
“A key issue currently is finding compromise and common ground on equivalence, market access and cross-border issues, among other areas. There are opportunities on all sides if we get this right, but there are equally challenges which will prevent the end goal from being achieved and could, ultimately, result in a riskier and less effective environment for end-users.”
Klaus Löber, the chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority Central Counterparty (CCP) Supervisory Committee, gave a keynote address where he discussed lessons learned for CCPs and supervisors in light of recent major crisis events, as well as the results of ESMA’s recent stress tests of 15 CCPs.
“Building on the results of the fourth CCP stress test, ESMA’s CCP stress-testing framework will progressively expand to other emerging risks such as cyber threats and more complex and multi-faceted risks linked to climate change,” Löber said.
The panels during the one-day event featured a stellar line-up of speakers covering the future regulation of European derivatives markets, as well as ways to improve industry operations to cope with volatile markets and the drive to improve data quality within derivatives reporting.
Also under discussion were the role of derivatives markets in meeting sustainability targets and crypto developments in Europe and their possible impact on derivatives market structure.
Following the success of the Frankfurt forum, FIA will continue its in-person engagement with European market participants and regulators later this year, hosting forums in Paris on 22 September and Milan on 19 October. At both events, attendees will hear from market participants, exchanges and regulators about trends in derivatives clearing, products and operations.
