The Commission Delegated Regulations (EU) nos. 148/2013 to 153/2013 of December 19th 2012 supplementing EMIR were published in the Official Journal on February 23rd 2013 and entered into force on March 15th 2013.
From the entry into force of the adopted Delegated Regulations European Central Counterparties (CCPs) established in the EU/EEA had 6 months to submit their application for authorisation under EMIR.
On March 18th last, Nasdaq OMX received its authorisation from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and became the first CCP authorised under EMIR meaning that the clock starts ticking towards the first clearing obligations for the products that Nasdaq OMX clears.
As a consequence of this first authorisation ESMA updated its timeline for the clearing obligations under EMIR.
The clearing obligation procedure which is further defined in Article 5(2) of EMIR is triggered every time a new CCP clearing OTC derivatives is authorised meaning that where CCPs are authorised on different dates, clearing obligation procedures may run in parallel.
It should be noted that each time a new CCP is authorised, ESMA has to draft relevant regulatory technical standards, and have them approved by the European Commission. Only then can the mandatory clearing of the classes of derivatives covered by the CCP become effective.
The first clearing obligations are expected to be in force earliest December 2014 and more likely 2015 and would be limited to all or some of the OTC derivatives and currencies included in the Nasdaq OMX authorisation. These include Interest Rate Swaps (DKK, EUR, NOK, SEK currencies), Overnight Indexed Swaps (EUR, SEK) and Forward Rate Agreements (DKK, EUR, NOK, SEK).