ICE Clear Europe finally gets EMIR approval

Bank of England gives green light over two years after ICE Clear Europe began application process.

ICE Clear Europe has finally been authorised as a central counterparty by the Bank of England, in accordance with European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).

The approval has taken over two years to process, following ICE’s resubmission of its application in 2014.

ICE said it was changing the way it calculated the daily value of the margin investors must post to back their derivatives trades, and so had to withdraw its original submission.

All of Europe’s clearing houses had to reapply to operate in the region following the introduction of EMIR rules.

ICE Clear Europe is the last of those clearing houses to gain regulatory approval.

It said it had demonstrated its governance, operations, risk management, treasury and banking infrastructure are EMIR compliant.

Paul Swann, president and managing director at ICE Clear Europe, said it will continue to “work closely with our clearing members and their customers as the European clearing mandates come into force over the coming months.”

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