On 20 October 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a final report on regulatory technical standards (RTS) on the requirements for Post-Trade Risk Reduction (PTRR) services for the purpose of the clearing obligation exemption under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
Background
Regulation (EU) No 2024/2987 (EMIR 3) introduces an exemption from the clearing obligation for transactions resulting from PTRR services, subject to certain requirements. To further specify the requirements and conditions for such exemption, EMIR 3 mandates ESMA to develop draft RTS. On 26 February 2026, ESMA issued a consultation paper on draft RTS on the PTRR services exemption. The consultation closed on 20 April 2026.
Final report
The final report provides information on the EMIR 3 framework and the work carried out by ESMA on PTRR services, including the EMIR 3 mandate for the RTS. It also covers the legal provisions applicable to PTRR services, both under EMIR and the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR). ESMA then sets out its final proposal for the draft RTS under EMIR.
The final proposal for the draft RTS specifies the requirements regarding PTRR services and their resulting transactions eligible for the clearing obligation exemption, including compression, portfolio rebalancing and basis risk optimisation. It sets out the common conditions on market risk neutrality and risk reduction, it further defines the obligations that PTRR service providers should meet, and it details the requirements on transparency, algorithms, execution, controls, record-keeping and monitoring of the exemption.
ESMA has only made limited adjustments to the initial draft RTS given that feedback from the consultation was broadly supportive.
The final proposal for the draft RTS confirms the approach proposed in the consultation of taking into account the provisions already applicable to PTRR service providers and users under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II), MiFIR and EMIR. For example, the draft RTS consider that pursuant to EMIR the PTRR service providers need to be MiFID authorised firms and thus avoid new requirements when the applicable MiFID provisions are sufficient to ensure compliance with the EMIR requirements for the purposes of the PTRR exemption (e.g. conflicts of interest).
The final report also deals with MiFIR, and in particular, it presents some considerations as regards the transactions to be recorded for the purposes of the exemption under MiFIR for PTRR services.
Next steps
ESMA submitted the final report to the European Commission on 9 October 2026. The Commission has three months to decide whether to endorse the proposed RTS.