EMIR Regulation  

If, in the course of your business as an undertaking established in the European Union, you enter into derivative transactions you should be aware of your obligations under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation ("EMIR").

What is EMIR? 

Regulation 648/2012 on OTC Derivatives, Central Counterparties and Trade Repositories (“EMIR”) implements increased transparency in respect of derivatives by imposing requirements concerning 

  • reporting of all derivative contracts (including exchange traded derivatives) to Trade Repositories (TRs)
  • clearing those OTC derivatives subject to the mandatory clearing obligation  
  • risk mitigation techniques for non–centrally cleared derivatives, and 
  • setting out requirements for both Central Counterparties (CCPs) and TRs

The Central Bank was designated national competent authority ("NCA") for EMIR in the State by Statutory Instrument No. 443 of 2014. 

EMIR applies not only to Financial Counterparties ("FCs") as regulated entities, but it also extends the supervisory remit of the Central Bank to Non-Financial Counterparties ("NFCs"), the vast majority of which have not had any previous interaction with the Central Bank.

The supervision of EMIR compliance for existing regulated counterparties is conducted by the sectoral supervisory areas and the EMIR & SFTR Supervision Team supervise NFCs which are not subject to other Financial Regulations. 

The EMIR & SFTR Supervision Team are also responsible for ensuring the quality of data reported by Irish FCs and NFCs under EMIR. EMIR data is actively scrutinised and analysed across the Central Bank for supervisory purposes, and to manage and mitigate systemic and contagion risk.

EMIR REFIT

EMIR was revised in the EMIR Regulatory Fitness and Performance programme (EMIR REFIT) which came into force on 17 June 2019.  The new reporting requirements under EMIR REFIT come into force from 29 April 2024. FCs and NFCs should engage with their Report Submitting Entities and their Trade Repositories (TRs) to ensure that they are in a position to report under the new reporting requirements as of 29 April 2024.  

Relevant FCs and NFCs should take into account the Guidelines on reporting, the validation rules applied by TRs, the reconciliation tolerances as well as the ISO 20022 XML schemas to ensure that reporting is performed according to the EMIR REFIT regime, including the specifications of the Technical Standards on reporting and on the reconciliation and verification of data.

If you have a query in relation to EMIR REFIT please consult ESMA EMIR Reporting. If your question is not covered please contact [email protected]