On 30 April 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced the launch of its sixth stress test exercise for central counterparties (CCPs). The CCP stress test framework drafted by ESMA for the purpose of this exercise is supported by an adverse market scenario provided by the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). The exercise covers 16 CCPs including all authorised EU CCPs as well as two UK-based Tier 2 CCPs. The main innovation in this latest stress test is the introduction of the recovery and resolution component that aims at assessing how CCPs would deploy recovery tools in response to extreme loss scenarios and what would be the impact for various stakeholders.
Timing
The design phase of the stress test exercise will be completed in April 2026 when the ESMA Board of Supervisors (BoS) approves the stress test framework.
The next steps will be the:
- Launch of the data request.
- Validation of the data provided by CCPs.
- Calibration of the common sensitivity tables.
- The computation of the results.
- The finalisation of the report.
The individual results will be reconciled with CCPs before finalising the analysis and discussed with Member State competent authorities before sending for discussion at the CCP Supervisory
Committee and approval at the BoS.
According to the projected plan, the exercise will be finalised in Q1 of 2027.