ESMA temporarily amends CCP collateral requirements to provide liquidity relief on energy derivatives markets

14 October 2022

ESMA, the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, today proposed measures to alleviate the liquidity pressure on non-financial counterparties (NFCs) active on gas and electricity regulated markets cleared in EU-based CCPs.

ESMA’s Final Report provides draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) which temporarily expand for a period of 12 months the pool of CCP eligible collateral to uncollateralised bank guarantees for NFCs acting as clearing members and to public guarantees for all types of counterparties.

The report published today follows ESMA’s earlier response to the Commission and is accompanied by a Q&A clarifying the eligibility of bonds and commercial paper as collateral for CCPs.

As outlined in its letter, ESMA will continue to work on other potential measures to respond to the extreme volatility in the energy markets.

Next steps

The Final Report was sent to the European Commission for endorsement and will then be subject to a scrutiny procedure by the European Parliament and the Council.