On September 23, 2015, the European Central Bank published a revised version of its Eurosystem Oversight Policy Framework which describes the role of the Eurosystem in oversight of payment systems. The Framework has been amended to remove the references to the Eurosystem location policy for CCPs. The revision follows the judgment of the General Court of March 4, 2015 on the UK Government's challenge of the Framework (as it then stood) and which annulled the Framework in so far as it set a requirement for CCPs to be located within the Eurozone. The Framework aimed to prevent CCPs in the European Union but outside the Eurozone from being able to have access to ECB Euro settlement facilities. Following that judgment, the ECB and the Bank of England announced that they had agreed to enhanced information exchange and cooperation arrangements for UK CCPs with significant euro-denominated business and that both central banks would extend the scope of their standing swap line order to aid the provision of multi-currency liquidity support by both central banks to CCPs established in the UK and the euro area. The ECB has also published Standards for the use of CCPs in Eurosystem foreign reserve management operations, which had been the subject of a separate legal challenge by the UK Government. The Standards would govern the use of CCPs for Interest Rate Swaps denominated in foreign currencies, aiming to limit the risks that would arise when these types of IRSs are cleared through a CCP.
The revised Eurosystem Oversight Policy Framework is available at: http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/eurosystemoversightpolicyframework201509.en.pdf?97da90823319143cf6814165b521bc7a.
The ECB Standards for use of CCPs is available at: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/standards201509.en.pdf?7bcb18979ecea45bb5603407c6b4955a.
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