Reuters has released an interesting article reporting that the European Parliament considering plans aimed at softening the discretion European Union regulators have to force London’s main clearing house to relocate, even if it wants to continue doing business in the single market after Brexit:
Euro clearing is one of the main battlegrounds between London and Brussels in divorce talks that will shape how Europe’s financial market is divided up when Britain leaves the European Union.
The European Commission proposed in June to give broad powers to itself, the European Central Bank and the European Securities and Markets Authority allowing them to force foreign clearing houses deemed “substantially systemically important” to move into the bloc, or face exclusion from the EU market.
“We don’t want to give those bodies this right to use total discretion in deciding what is cleared where,” Danuta Hubner, chair of the powerful constitutional affairs committee of the EU legislature, told Reuters.
I myself, am a bit dubious. As the report states, any agreement will require not just a majority of the Parliament, but also the agreement of all of the EU member states. That seems highly unlikely with key jurisdictions seeking to attract the clearing business from the United Kingdom. Still, a Parliament vote could provide enough political pressure to slow the rulemaking process, and even cause Commission staff to perhaps reconsider their strategy for post-Brexit derivatives rules.