FIA, EACB, EFAMA and ISDA have written to the European Securities and Markets Authority to highlight concerns regarding the imminent entry into effect of the Active Account Requirement (AAR) on 24 June 2025, in the absence of required Level 2 implementing rules. Without Level 2 implementing rules, EU market participants lack clarity on the final AAR requirements with which they must comply from that date.
The associations request that ESMA issues an opinion to national competent authorities asking them not to prioritise any supervisory or enforcement action in relation to AAR, namely the representativeness requirement.
It is critical for the industry that the EMIR 3.0 Level 2 regulatory technical standards on the conditions of the AAR are finalised and published in the Official Journal of the European Union sufficiently in advance of the application date, in order for EU financial market participants to understand the final AAR requirements that they must comply with on Day 1.
More generally and beyond the scope of this joint association letter, the industry is increasingly concerned by an emerging pattern where Level 1 provisions are expected to apply before the corresponding Level 2 implementing rules have been finalised, adopted and published in the OJEU.
A more proportionate, coordinated and sequential implementation – where Level 2 rules operationalise the principles and requirements set out in Level 1 – followed by an appropriate implementation period for market participants to arrange their compliance based on the published level 2 rules, is essential to ensuring legal certainty and facilitate simple, effective and correct implementation across the industry.
Read the letter in full.
