ESMA (the European Securities and markets Authority) has been consulting on the regulatory technical standards applying to the risk-mitigation techniques for OTC-derivative contracts not cleared by a CCP Most companies if in the NFC- category are not required to clear derivatives, but NGC+ or financial counterparties who are required to clear and find they cannot because no CCP accepts the derivative in question instead have to put up margin. The ACT has pointed out one anomaly in the rules around margin, as proposed by ESMA, namely that any EU bank dealing with a non-EU party who would fall in the NFC- category will have to collect margin on those transactions, making it most unlikely that any non-EU NFC- will ever wish to deal with a European bank, in effect blocking European banks from this line of business.
