The European Commission (the Commission) has published a speech given by Jonathan Hil (European Commissioner for financial stability, financial services and capital markets union) at the EMIR public hearing. The speech is entitled First steps in the review of EMIR, the European derivatives regulation.

In his speech Commissioner Hill mentions that:

• clearing obligations and margin requirements for trades not centrally cleared are still not fully in place. The over-the-counter derivative market has reached $630 trillion and while good progress has been made with nearly half of this market centrally cleared, more needs to be done;
• having now finalised its discussions with the European Securities and Markets Authority the Commission is starting the process of getting the first clearing obligations adopted. This means that the first clearing rules for certain interest rate products might be in place as soon as April next year, although the Commission has provided for a longer phase-in for different types of counterparties for whom implementation is less straightforward, including a three year delay for non-financial end-users;
• the Commission will soon put in place the necessary extension of the transitional relief for EU pension funds from central clearing. This will provide a further two years to look at possible solutions to the challenges that pension funds face when clearing; and
• with respect to margin for non-cleared trades the European Supervisory Authorities are set to deliver draft requirements to the Commission within the next few months. The Commission expects these to track the internationally agreed timetable, beginning late next year, but with a staggered phase-in for smaller counterparties.

View First steps in review of EMIR , the European derivatives regulation, 29 May 2015