The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, has announced its recognition of two central counterparties (CCPs) established in the United States (U.S.) as Tier 1 CCPs under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). These are the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) and the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC).
ESMA, on 27 June 2022, recognised, for the first time, both FICC, which is authorised and supervised by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and OCC, which is jointly authorised and supervised by the SEC and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as Tier 1 CCPs under Article 25 of EMIR. This follows the European Commission’s adoption, on 4 April 2022, of the amendments to the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/85 on the equivalence to EMIR’s requirements of the US regulatory framework for CCPs that are authorised and supervised by the SEC, as well as of the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/552.
In March, NSCC was also recognized by ESMA. Laura Klimpel, general manager of Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) & Head of SIFMU Business Development at DTCC, said in a statement: “DTCC is pleased that NSCC and FICC have been recognized as Tier 1 third-country CCPs by ESMA. We look forward to continuing to serve our clients and thank ESMA for the work they have done throughout the recognition process.”
The detailed list of recognised TC-CCPs is published on the ESMA website.