EMIR 3 – the active account requirement

The latest revisions to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (known as EMIR 3)1 brought about numerous changes affecting cleared markets, with potential impacts both within and outside the EU. Among these is the introduction of the controversial, new “active account” requirement. This will require certain EU counterparties to hold at least one active account at an EU CCP and clear a representative number of trades through that account. This is intended to incentivise the development of clearing in the EU and reduce exposures to and usage by EU entities of non-EU central counterparties (CCPs).

Following its consultation,2 the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has now published its f inal draft regulatory technical standards (RTS)3 that set out the detail of the active account requirements (the Active Account RTS). This provides greater certainty for those counterparties and CCPs. EMIR 3 entered into force on 24 December 2024, except for the amendments to the calculation of the clearing thresholds for financial counterparties (FCs) and non-financial counterparties (NFCs). The requirement to have an active account applied from 25 June 2025, however, the final draft of the Active Account RTS still has to be approved by the European Commission. Until such time that the Active Account RTS enter into force, in-scope entities should discuss compliance with their national competent authority (NCA). We focus on the active account requirement in this note.