ESMA Upgrades Public Register With Aggregated Category 1 Clearing Members

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has released an update to its centralized public register and database, including the provision of listed Category 1 clearing members, according to an ESMA statement.

More specifically, ESMA’s Public Register for Clearing Obligations has been modified to include all Category 1 clearing members, which are defined as financial counterparties or non-financial counterparties above the clearing threshold who are clearing members of a central clearinghouse (CCP).

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This pertains to the shifting regulatory climate in Europe for derivatives and clearing, namely with regard to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and the clearing of contracts by June 21, 2016. Over the past few years, ESMA has been working in tandem with national authorities as well as CCPs to help facilitate and corroborate the identification of all category 1 counterparties.

The list is important as it allows all relevant entities to identify themselves and others as Category 1 CCPs. Consequently, all CCPs in the European Union (EU) and third-country CCPs that are presently authorized and/or recognized to clear over-the-counter (OTC) interest rate swaps across G4 currencies (EUR, GBP, JPY, and USD) have now released aggregated lists of Category 1 clearing members in a unified format – the update to ESMA’s register is the latest iteration and update to this database.

ESMA made headlines earlier this week after its credentials were illegally used to substantiate a number of fraudulent entities. Several regulatory authorities have been frequent targets of this fraud, with the latest circumstance seeing ESMA’s logo, email, and overall identity utilized without any prior authorization from the authority itself. ESMA subsequently released a warning the public, indicating how to foster greater awareness of this trend.