Central clearing deadline for derivatives: France names the date

Chris Hamblin

11 December 2015

L'Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the French regulator, is hailing this as one of the most important components of the EMIR regulation, intended to make the trading of derivatives a more secure process. The following interest-rate derivatives, denominated in euros, pounds Sterling, Japanese yen and US dollars, will go first:

fixed-to-float interest rate swaps (also known as plain vanilla);
float-to-float swaps (also known as basis swaps);
forward rate agreements (FRAs); and
overnight index swaps.

Maturities and reference indices are specified in the delegated regulation. Any financial counterparty trading derivative products is subject to the clearing obligation. Non-financial counterparties are only affected if their non-hedging positions exceed certain thresholds.