On December 2, the European Securities and Markets Authority issued a press release stating that clearing as required under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation would commence on June 21, 2016. This date follows the publication of the first technical standards on the clearing obligation in the Official Journal of the European Union on December 1.

The first clearing obligation will cover the following classes of over-the-counter interest rate derivatives denominated in EUR, GBP, JPY and USD: (1) fixed-to-float interest rate swaps; (2) float-to-float swaps; (3) forward rate agreements; and (4) overnight index swaps. This initial clearing obligation will be phased in across four categories of market participants. For further details, see the Corporate and Financial Weekly Digest edition of August 7.

A copy of the press release can be found here.

A copy of the technical standards can be found here.