The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has added an Italian and a French clearing house to to its list of central counterparties (CCPs) authorised to offer services in the European Union under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
The clearing houses are Italy’s Cassa di Compensazione e Garanzia (CC&G) and France’s LCH.Clearnet SA.
The Bank of Italy, authorised under EMIR to supervise CCPs in its national territory, granted approval to CC&G on 20 May, following CC&G’s completed CCP application submission in November.
Bank of Italy also approved an interoperability arrangement between CC&G and LCH.Clearnet SA, allowing the two CCPs to gain access to each others clearing systems, and providing clearing members with a choice of which CCP to use and which CCP counterparties use.
The French L’Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), approved LCH.Clearnet S.A. (LCH.Clearnet Group’s French CCP) as a CCP 22 May, and also approved the interoperability arrangement.
LCH.Clearnet S.A. submitted its application to French regulators on September 15, 2013, and the application was deemed complete on November 27.
LCH.Clearnet said the authorisation confirms that its risk management framework, technology, governance, operating model and capital meet the standards required by EMIR.
Christophe Hémon, chief executive of LCH.Clearnet SA, added:
"Being authorised as EMIR compliant confirms the high standards of risk and operational management to which we adhere. With this major milestone now achieved we look forward to working collaboratively with our regulators, our members and their clients.”
These two clearing houses bring ESMA’s approved CCPs to a total of six, including Sweden’s NASDAQ OMX Clearing, Netherlands-headquartered EuroCCP, Poland’s KDPW_CCP and Germany’s Eurex Clearing.