On 28 May 2018, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued final guidelines on anti-procyclicality margin measures for central counterparties (CCPs) under EMIR.

EMIR recognises that CCPs, Member State national competent authorities (NCAs) and ESMA should adopt measures to prevent and control possible procyclical effects arising from the risk-management practices adopted by CCPs. To this end, Article 41 of EMIR and Article 28 of the RTS (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 153/2013 of 19 December 2012 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards on requirements for CCPs) set out requirements for CCPs to monitor the procyclicality arising from margin revisions and margin parameters and adopt at least one of three anti-procyclicality margin measures.

In August 2015, ESMA published a report on its review of EMIR on the efficiency of margining requirements to limit procyclicality. The guidelines seek to address the findings in the report and promote a consistent implementation of the relevant EMIR and RTS provisions.

The guidelines will become effective from 3 December 2018. The guidelines will be translated into the official languages of the EU and within two months from the date of publication of the translations, each NCA must notify ESMA of its intent to whether or not to comply with the guidelines.