EMIR requires CCPs who wish to continue to trade in the European Union to arrange for accreditation based on new regulatory requirements. Accreditation is accompanied by identification of the financial instruments or type of contracts that each CCP is authorized to clear.

On March19, NASDAQ OMX was the first CCP to be awarded ESMA accreditation. The others are expected to follow fairly rapidly.

This accreditation is one of the prerequisites for implementation of the clearing obligation which will be imposed on a number of standard contracts. Nevertheless, this can only actually enter into effect once ESMA has published the list of asset classes which will be subject to it. And it will take at least 6 months before this list is published, at which time the clearing obligation for the products ESMA deems eligible will be retroactive for ongoing contracts.