On 31 March 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a public statement on the derivative trading obligation (DTO) in the context of the migration of credit default swap (CDS) contracts out of ICE Clear Europe.

The objective of this statement is to support the orderly migration of positions from ICE Clear Europe to other central counterparties (CCPs), following the announcement of the forthcoming closure of ICE Clear Europe’s CDS clearing notice on 27 October 2023.

In particular, in order to support the orderly migration of positions and for the sole purpose of migrating pre-existing positions in ICE Clear Europe until 31 October 2023 to another CCP, ESMA expects national competent authorities not to prioritise their supervisory actions in relation to the DTO for transactions in certain index CDSs, and to generally apply their risk-based supervisory powers in their day-to-day enforcement of applicable legislation in this area in a proportionate manner.

The certain index CDSs are: untranched Index CDS referencing the index iTraxx Europe Main, settlement currency EUR, on-the-run and first off-the-run series with tenor of 5Y; and untranched Index CDS referencing the index iTraxx Europe Crossover, settlement currency EUR, on-the-run and first off-the-run series with tenor of 5Y.