On February 2, 2108, the European Securities and Markets Authority published a report setting out the results of its second EU-wide CCP stress test exercise. The European Market Infrastructure Regulation requires ESMA to conduct the exercise at least once per year to assess the resilience and safety of EU CCPs. The second stress test tested the resilience of 16 European CCPs, with approximately 900 clearing members EU-wide.

The 2017 stress test builds on the first stress test conducted in 2016, which only examined counterparty credit risk. The second stress test included liquidity risks and examined whether CCPs would meet their liquidity needs under different stress scenarios. ESMA has published some Q&A to accompany the report.

The ESMA report is available at: http://firds.esma.europa.eu/webst/ESMA70-151-1154%20EU-wide%20CCP%20Stress%20Test%202017%20Report.pdf and the ESMA Q&A are available at: http://firds.esma.europa.eu/webst/ESMA70-151-1179%202nd%20CCP%20stress%20test%20FAQ.pdf.

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