Final Report on RTS for CCP Admission Criteria and NFC Clearing Member Assessment

8 July 2026
ESMA91-1505572268-4692
Final Report
Draft RTS on the elements to be considered when a CCP establishes its admission criteria and assesses the ability of NFCs acting as clearing members to meet margin requirements and default fund contributions

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Table of Contents
1 Executive Summary ....................................................................................................5
2 Legislative references and abbreviations.....................................................................7
3 Introduction ...............................................................................................................10
4 RTS on the elements to be considered when a CCP establishes its admission criteria
4.1 Introduction / Overall approach...........................................................................16
4.2 Transparent, Fair and Open Access...................................................................23
4.3 Sufficient Financial Resources ...........................................................................28
4.4 Operational Capacity..........................................................................................33
4.5 Other Considerations and Risks / Additional Elements.......................................37
4.6 Clearing Members offering Clearing Services to Clients.....................................41
4.7 Sponsored Models .............................................................................................45
5 RTS on the elements to be considered when a CCP assesses the ability of NFCs acting
as clearing members to meet margin requirements and default fund contributions...........50
5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................50
5.2 Access to reliable liquidity ..................................................................................50
5.3 Absence of financial services authorisation/licence ............................................52
5.4 ESMA assessment of feedback and proposal in relation to NFCs ......................53
6 Annex........................................................................................................................57
6.1 Annex I – Legislative mandate to develop RTS ..................................................57
6.2 Annex II – Cost-benefit analysis .........................................................................59
6.2.1 Other considerations and risks / additional elements...................................59
6.2.2 Collecting data on clearing member’s exposure to other CCPs in the context
of assessing the clearing member’s financial resources ............................................60