EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness has given the players in the derivatives market a warning. "I call on the industry to actively reduce its exposure to systemically important central counterparties outside the European Union," emphasised the Irishwoman in a welcome address at the Derivatives Forum Frankfurt 2024, which was organised by Deutsche Börse and its derivatives market subsidiary Eurex. She implicitly threatened that the EU Commission would otherwise push for stricter rules. The EU Commissioner recalled that a review clause was embedded in the amendment to the Derivatives Regulation (EMIR 3.0). 18 months after the new law comes into force, i.e. in 2026, the EU Commission can decide on the basis of a review whether to propose further adjustments.

In this context, McGuinness left little doubt that she firmly believes that further tightening will be necessary, for example, in the form of quantitative minimum thresholds for the proportion of business that market participants must clear with clearing houses within the European Union.

The parties reached an agreement on the requirements for clearing euro-denominated futures transactions. The compromise stipulates the obligation for market participants to maintain a "robust active account" with a central counterparty (CCP) within the EU. It must contain "operational elements" to ensure the ability to trade at short notice if necessary and "activity elements" to document that the account is being used effectively. The procedure used to calibrate how large the minimum volume of transactions cleared in the EU must be is complex and is based on the overall size of the exposure and the maturities of the traded contracts.

McGuinness emphasised in her statement that the final version "does not reflect the level of ambition I would have liked to see". She appealed for more progress to be made in the future. She justified the vigour with which she is positioning herself on the issue by referring to the considerable risks to financial stability that would arise if a clearing house were to get into difficulties. In such a case, the EU institutions would "no longer be in the driver's seat" with a CCP based outside the European Union. The far-reaching decisions on liquidity support that would then have to be made would be taken without the involvement of an EU body.

The Irishwoman once again sharply criticised the market's over-dependence on the London Clearing House. The vast majority of euro derivatives are cleared in the UK. Eurex began to attract market share to continental Europe six years ago with specific incentives for market participants (partnership programme). The Deutsche Börse subsidiary now accounts for 20% of euro clearing. On the other hand, according to market circles, four out of ten market participants trading euro products are not yet connected in Frankfurt at all. This will now change as soon as EMIR 3.0 comes into force.