CESR publishes responses to consultation on trade repositories

The financial crisis, especially the default of Lehman Brothers, underlined the importance of a robust and adequately functioning post-trading infrastructure, highlighted the need for more transparency on exposures generated by the over-the counter (OTC) market, in particular for derivatives, notably credit default swaps (CDS), and demonstrated the need to safeguard the OTC market from abusive behavior. The CESR/ESCB Recommendations for Securities Settlement Systems and Central Counterparties in the European Union, upon request of the ECOFIN, have been reviewed in order to encompass the OTC derivatives dimension.On 31 July 2009 the European Commission announced a major step towards financial stability for the European CDS market in (defined as the market in CDS that reference European entities and indices), related to European entities and indices will be cleared through central counterparties as of that date. The fact that various providers of clearing services have now expanded (or are in the process of doing so) their scope of services to central clearing of CDS is an important reason to consider what further improvements can be made in order to enhance risk mitigation and to improve the transparency and efficiency of the post-trading process as a whole. On 3 July 2009 the European Commission published a Communication on ensuring efficient, safe and sound derivatives markets. In the Communication the Commission referred to the forthcoming report of CESR on trade repositories, on the basis of which the Commission will take appropriate actions. It also raised several other issues that it considers to be important in the context of derivatives markets. View the responses on CESR websiteISDA-AFME-BBA-NSA joint responseBVR/ National Association of German Cooperative BanksCaixa Geral de DepósitosDivision Bank and InsuranceEBFEuropean Association of Public BanksFBFBanque de FranceAFGAPGBVI Bundesverband Investment und Asset Management e.V.EFAMAInvestment Management AssociationAviva InvestorsNYSE EuronextChatham Financial Europe LimitedCME Clearing EuropeEuroclear SA/NVEuropean Central BankLCH.Clearnet LtdMarkitSwedish Securities Dealers AssociationSWIFTBMEDTCCEurexFESELondon Stock ExchangeNASDAQTradeweb Europe LimitedWholesale Market Brokers Association