On March 9, 2015, the European Securities and Markets Authority published a revised opinion on its draft RTS on the clearing obligation for interest rate swaps. ESMA has revised its original opinion to take account of the notification it received from the European Commission that the Commission intended to adopt the draft RTS with amendments. The opinion annexes revised RTS which clarify certain points and propose further revisions to the Commission's amendments, including that: (i) for a period of three years, financial counterparties will be able to apply for the intragroup transaction exemption for their transactions with any third-country entity in the absence of decisions on equivalence; and (ii) the €8 billion clearing obligation threshold applies at individual fund level when the counterparties are UCITS or alternative investment funds.

ESMA's opinion is available at: http://www.esma.europa.eu/news/ESMA-clarifies-its-interest-rate-swaps-clearing-standards?t=326&o=home.

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