ESMA Publishes Principles on Stakeholder Engagement in Peer Reviews
On April 15, the European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") published a paper on stakeholder engagement in peer reviews.
The paper sets out six high-level principles guiding the interaction with stakeholders with the objective of obtaining background information relevant for the peer review:
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What entities are considered as stakeholders in the context of a peer review?
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Who decides if interaction with stakeholders is needed?
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When does this decision need to be taken? Must national competent authorities ("NCAs") accept the fact of stakeholder engagement?
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If an NCA may decline such a possibility, does an NCA need to explain why it would not want to have stakeholder engagement for a particular peer review?
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How is the interaction organized and how are the stakeholders chosen?
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What use is made of the outcome of the stakeholder interaction?
The principles contribute to ESMA's commitment to focus on supervisory convergence in 2016. ESMA may in the future, in light of its experience, prepare a set of procedures for stakeholder engagement in peer reviews, which could be annexed to the Methodology for peer reviews (ESMA/20131709). Paper.
ISDA Publishes Updated EMIR Classification Letter
On April 13, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. ("ISDA") published an updated classification letter that enables counterparties to notify each other of their status for clearing and other regulatory requirements under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation ("EMIR").
The updated letter covers the clearing obligation for certain interest rate derivatives classes denominated in EEA currencies and certain credit default swap index classes. The ISDA EMIR classification letter allows market participants to bilaterally communicate their status to their counterparties by answering a series of questions.
The updated letter makes several substantive amendments, including:
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aligning the definition of "Category 1 entity" to the one used in the final, published version of the G-4 interest rate products regulatory technical standards ("RTS") (which come into force from June 2016); and
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providing the ability for entities to make classifications in respect of the draft RTS for EEA rates and the RTS on credit default swap index classes.
Classification Letter.
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