EMIR 3 Package in force: immediate compliance required for most changes

Regulation (EU) 2024/2987¹ (EMIR 3 Regulation) and Directive 2024/2994² (EMIR 3 Directive), known as EMIR 3 Package, aim to mitigate excessive exposures to third-country central counterparties and enhance the efficiency of Union clearing markets by introducing a series of substantial amendments to the existing framework.

The EMIR 3 Regulation modifies not only EMIR³, but also CRR⁴ and MMF Regulation⁵, whilst the EMIR 3 Directive amends CRD⁶, IFD⁷ and the UCITS Directive⁸.

The EMIR 3 Package was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 4 December 2024 and enters into force on 24 December 2024. Due to the absence of explicit transitional provisions in the EMIR 3 Regulation (except for Article 1 points (4) and (9) which is subject to the entry into force of related RTS), the requirements of the EMIR 3 Regulation are applicable as from today, 24 December 2024. By contrast, the EMIR 3 Directive provisions must be transposed into national laws by 25 June 2026.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is tasked with developing various sets of draft regulatory technical standards (RTS). Notably, the RTS concerning the active account requirement under EMIR 3 Regulation must be developed by 25 June 2025 and ESMA has already initiated a consultation in this respect, which began on 20 November 2024⁹. The consultation will remain open until 27 January 2025, with a public hearing scheduled for 20 January 2025.

The lack of the relevant RTS at the date of the entry into force of the EMIR 3 Regulation raises concerns on the market. It is worth noting that the EBA published on 17 December 2024 a no action letter stating that competent authorities (CAs) should not prioritise any supervisory or enforcement action in relation to the processing of applications for initial margin (IM) model authorisation received as a result of the entry into force of EMIR 3 until key RTS under the EMIR 3 Regulation become applicable¹⁰.