ESMA Final Rules

Key dates

Q4 2025

- ESMA conducted a public consultation on the draft RTS

November 2025

- ESMA held a public hearing on the draft RTS

05 January 2026

- The consultation period referenced in ESMA’s prior consultation paper closed

08 July 2026

- ESMA published the Final Report on the RTS concerning CCP admission criteria elements

TBD (post

08 July 2026); - The RTS will be submitted to the European Commission for endorsement

Suggested considerations

• CCPs should review their current admission criteria to ensure they are explicitly tied to a documented assessment of risks posed by each clearing member type.
• CCPs should update membership rulebooks and onboarding procedures to reflect the RTS requirement to consider financial resources, operational capacity, and liquidity support arrangements.
• CCPs should build or refine documented methodologies for assessing NFC clearing members’ ability to meet margin and default fund obligations.
• CCPs should ensure sponsored membership frameworks clearly define how the sponsor’s support, the sponsored member’s profile, and relevant risk controls are assessed for eligibility purposes.
• CCPs should prepare to publish clear admission criteria, application steps, timelines, required documentation, and explanations for any category-specific requirements.

What changed

• - CCPs must base admission criteria on a comprehensive risk assessment of the risks posed by clearing members and ensure the criteria reflect those risks.
• CCPs must consider whether clearing members have sufficient financial resources to meet obligations arising from participation in the CCP.
• CCPs must assess whether clearing members have access to reliable credit, liquidity, and foreign exchange facilities commensurate with the scale and nature of their clearing activity.
• CCPs must examine the clearing member’s operational capacity to meet CCP obligations, including readiness to support clearing operations and margin obligations.
• CCPs must take account of the client clearing activity of a clearing member, including the relative importance of that activity and the member’s ability to meet margin requirements if clients default.