On February 8, the European Commission issued an announcement concerning the draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) made under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (the Regulation on OTC Derivatives, Central Counterparties and Trade Repositories (Regulation 648/2012)) issued in December 2012 (as reported in Corporate and Financial Weekly Digest of December 21, 2012). The announcement followed the withdrawal of a motion before the European Parliament by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) to reject the RTS.
The European Commission stated that it understood ECON’s reasons for proposing the rejection of the RTS. It will address them by ensuring that when it adopts its decisions on mandatory clearing for specific classes of OTC derivatives, the clearing obligation for non-financial firms will be phased in over an appropriate period of time. This will allow non-financial firms sufficient time to adapt to the new requirements.