Polish central counterparty KDPW_CCP is the third clearinghouse to be authorised under the new European Market Infrastructure Regulation (Emir).

The Polish Financial Supervision Authority gave the authorisation, confirming the CCP meets all requirements for these institutions under Emir.

“The positive opinion of the College and eventually the relevant decision of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority allow KDPW_CCP to operate as an authorised CCP across the European Union including the addition of the interbank OTC derivatives market to the authorised scope of the clearing house’s services,” said Iwona Sroka, CEO and President of KDPW_CCP.

The approval closely follows the authorisation of Nasdaq OMX Clearing in March and the European Central Counterparty in April.
Sroka highlighted the advantages that mandatory central clearing of derivatives will provide.

“We expect the service to bring many benefits to the Polish financial market: it will release credit limits imposed by banks on their counterparties, reduce capital requirements for exposures to counterparty risk, improve the liquidity of the interbank market and mitigate operational risk,” said Sroka.

Banks have the option to apply lower capital requirements to transactions cleared in an authorised clearinghouse under the EU Capital Requirements Directive and Capital Requirements Regulation.

KDPW_CCP will clear FX swaps, FRAs, single-currency interest rate swaps based on foreign interest rate indices (IRS) and cross-currency interest rate swaps. The clearinghouse also offers access to clearing in the Polish zloty in central bank money as a result of its relations with the National Bank of Poland.

KDPW_CCP said another important feature is the ability to post collateral in the clearing guarantee system in Polish treasury bonds and bills, shares in the WIG20 index and in local cash.

The Polish regulators have recently made changes to the local clearing law. One major development is the separation of clearing from settlement at the KDPW to create a separate legal entity. The result is mitigated counterparty risk.

The firm also runs a trade repository service that was registered by the European Securities and Markets Authority last November.