ISDA, the Alternative Investment Management Association, the European Association of Co-operative Banks, the European Banking Federation, the European Fund and Asset Management Association, Invest Europe, the Managed Funds Association, and the Nordic Securities Association have asked for a permanent exemption from margin requirements for equity options from the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) margin requirements.
Equity options play a significant part in the real economy. Imposing variation and initial margin requirements on these instruments would increase funding costs and operational complexity and could result in smaller EU counterparties ceasing to use equity options for hedging and risk mitigation purposes.
In addition, given some major jurisdictions are permanently exempting equity options from margin requirements, EU market participants would face a clear competitive disadvantage when dealing with non-EU counterparties.
Documents (1) for Joint Trade Associations Ask for EMIR Equity Option Margin Exemption
Latest
A Critical Step to Efficient Treasury Clearing
By the end of this year, the first prong of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Treasury clearing mandate will come into force. This is part of a regulatory effort to make the financial system more robust, but it will...
Joint Response to FCA and HMT Consultations
On January 16, ISDA and UK Finance responded to both the consultation on streamlining the UK European Market Infrastructure Regulation (UK EMIR) intragroup regime by the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) and the draft statutory instrument from His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT)....
Key Trends in OTC Derivatives Market H1 2025
The latest data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives statistics shows an increase in notional outstanding of OTC derivatives during the first half of 2025 compared to the first half of 2024. Notional outstanding rose across...
Credit Derivatives Trading Activity Q3 2025
This report analyzes credit derivatives trading activity reported in Europe. The analysis shows European credit derivatives transactions based on the location of reporting venues (EU versus UK) and product type. The report also compares European-reported credit derivatives trading activity to...