Citation, commencement, extent and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Central Counterparties (Equivalence) Regulations 2026.

(2) These Regulations come into force on 3rd August 2026.

(3) These Regulations extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

(4) In these Regulations—

“ EMIR ” means of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories ;

“ relevant regulatory authority ” means a regulatory authority, specified in the second column of the table in Part 1 of the Schedule, which is responsible for the authorisation and supervision of CCPs in the third country specified in the same row of the table;

“ specified CCP ” means a CCP( 2 ) specified in the third column of the table in Part 1 of the Schedule;

“ specified overseas jurisdiction ” means a third country specified in the first column of the table in Part 1 of the Schedule.

Equivalence

2. The Treasury specify that in respect of a specified overseas jurisdiction—

(a)the legal and supervisory arrangements of the specified overseas jurisdiction as implemented by the relevant regulatory authority ensure that specified CCPs authorised in that jurisdiction comply on an ongoing basis with legally binding requirements which are equivalent to the requirements laid down in Title IV of EMIR (requirements for CCPs);

(b)the specified CCPs are subject to effective supervision and enforcement on an ongoing basis by the relevant regulatory authority;

(c)the legal framework of the specified overseas jurisdiction as implemented by the relevant regulatory authority provides for an effective equivalent system for the recognition of CCPs authorised under legal regimes of other countries.

Regulation 1

Schedule Overseas jurisdictions, regulatory authorities and CCPs specified for the purposes of regulation 2

Part 1 Specified overseas jurisdictions, relevant regulatory authorities and specified CCPs

Part 2 Further provisions relating to the specification of the United States of America

1. In this Schedule—

“ regulated market ” has the meaning given in Article 2(13) of MIFIR( 3 );

“ Regulatory Technical Standards ” means Commission Delegated of 19 December 2012 supplementing Regulation (EU) of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to Regulation (EU) 153/2013 regulatory technical standards on requirements for central counterparties( 4 );

“ SEC ” means the Securities and Exchange Commission of the USA;

“ SEC-registered CCP ” means a CCP that is—

“ USA ” means the United States of America.

2. An SEC-registered CCP specified in paragraph 3 is only specified for the purposes of regulation 2 where its internal rules and procedures include requirements equivalent to the following—

(a)in relation to all derivative contracts(5), at least one of the three options set out in paragraphs (a) to (c) of Article 28(1) (procyclicality) of the Regulatory Technical Standards,

(b)in relation to derivative contracts executed on a regulated market, the requirement in Article 26(1)(b) (time horizons for the liquidation period) of the Regulatory Technical Standards, and

(c)the requirement in Article 43(2) of EMIR (financial resources) relating to the default fund referred to in Article 42 and the other financial resources referred to in Article 43(1).

3. The SEC-registered CCPs to which the condition in paragraph 2 applies are—

(a)Fixed Income Clearing Corporation, the company registered with the SEC with Central Index Key 000123861.

(b)ICE Clear Credit LLC, the company registered with the SEC with Central Index Key 0001559962.