On 3 September, ESMA published its technical advice to the European Commission on the equivalence of the US and Japanese derivatives frameworks to the EU rules. On 2 October, ESMA supplemented its technical advice with complete equivalence findings on Australia, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, South Korea and India. The advice is not the final EU statement on the equivalence of these regimes because the European Commission is charged with adopting legislative acts on equivalence. Once it has considered ESMA’s advice, the Commission has a discretion (not apparently limited to concerns about financial services) to declare equivalence. Broadly speaking, these countries’ rules on derivatives have been considered equivalent but this is subject to market participants agreeing to apply European standards, where higher.View full memo, "ESMA Advice on Third-Country Equivalence Under EMIR, II"
