knowledge 26 October 2022 |

EMIR: Extension confirmed for Intragroup Exemptions (Updated February 2023)

On 13 June 2022, the European Supervisory Authorities (the “ESAs”) published a final report (see here) with draft regulatory technical standards (“RTS”) that would extend by three years the current time-limited margin exemption (which expires 30 June 2022) for intragroup contracts where one counterparty is established in a third country and one in the EU.  The purpose of the extension is to accommodate the ongoing assessment of third-country equivalence and allow for a review of the intragroup exemptions framework under the scheduled upcoming review of EMIR¹.

In expressing their support for addressing the intragroup regime in the upcoming EMIR review, the ESAs’ report reiterated a view expressed by the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) earlier this year, in its high-level response to the European Commission (“EC”) consultation on a targeted review of EMIR with respect to the EU central clearing framework (see here), that certain additional conditions might be imposed on the availability of the intragroup exemption including that:

• euro and EU currency risks be managed by a group entity in the EEA, with the ESAs referring to this as being “to prevent circumvention risk via certain booking practices, e.g. back to back trades to essentially maintain everything in a third-country”; and

• the third country in which the group entity is established/authorised being neither considered by the EU institutions as having strategic deficiencies in its national anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism regime that poses significant threats to the EU financial system, nor subject to economic sanctions issued by the EU institutions.

The ESAs' report also acknowledged the difficulties caused by the equivalence condition in relation to the exemption from CVA for intragroup transactions under the Capital Requirements Regulation and suggested that this might also be considered as part of the upcoming EMIR review.

ESMA also published a final report on 13 June 2022 (see here) incorporating draft RTS to make a similar amendment to the existing three Commission Delegated Regulations on the clearing obligation under EMIR² with respect to the equivalent time-limited intragroup clearing exemption, in which it expressed similar support for addressing this in the upcoming EMIR Review and the possibility of imposing conditions to availability of this exemption of the type referred to in the ESAs' report with respect to the intragroup margin exemption.

Update February 2023: On 13 February 2023, two Commission Delegated Regulations incorporating the above RTS were published in the Official Journal of the European Union (the "Official Journal"):

• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/314 (see here) containing RTS providing for the extension of the current time-limited margin exemption for intragroup contracts until 30 June 2025; and
• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2013/315 (see here) containing RTS deferring the equivalent time-limited intragroup clearing exemption until 30 June 2025.

The above Delegated Regulations entered into force on 14 February 2023.