European Market Infrastructure Regulation

Craig Bisson

A product of the global financial crisis, the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR)¹¹ Regulation (EU) No. 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories. introduced in Europe requirements designed to address systemic risk and a lack of transparency in the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market. From the perspective of market participants, EMIR imposes three key requirements:

• • the mandatory clearing of certain OTC derivative contracts;
• • risk-mitigation for non-centrally cleared OTC derivative contracts; and
• • reporting of both OTC derivative contracts and exchange-traded contracts to trade repositories.

EMIR also sets out detailed requirements relating to the authorisation and supervision of, and requirements for, central counterparties (CCPs) and trade repositories within the European Union (EU), which are beyond the scope of this chapter. The regulation was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on July 27, 2012, and came into force on August 16, 2012. A number of its provisions were subject to phase-in.

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