MiFID II Directive sometimes can be regarded as a really ground-breaking piece of legislation. This is also the case with respect to position limits, as MiFID II for the first time creates legal base enabling the imposition - across the European Union - of such mandatory restrictions on the size of commercial trading.

             
                 
New                             

 

 

4 April 2023

Joint association (CMC, EFET, ISDA, FESE, FIA, IETA, Europex) pre-trilogue comments on the MiFID II / MiFIR Fundamental Review in relation to commodity derivatives


2 March 2023

European Parliament Report on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2014/65/EU on markets in financial instruments (COM(2021)0726 – C9‑0438/2021 – 2021/0384(COD)) - in the new Article 57(15) of MiFID II, the European Parliament proposes a potential review of the position limits regime (+ recital 10c).


20 December 2022

ESMA Opinion on position limits on ICE Endex Dutch TTF Gas contracts, ESMA70-55-12400


23 September 2022

Questions and Answers on MiFID II and MiFIR commodity derivatives topics (ESMA70-872942901-36) updated

The revised Q&A document reflects mainly the amendments introduced by the Recovery Package for commodity derivatives, including those introduced by the entry into force of the latest technical standards, main changes in the field of position limits include:

- limiting position limits to agricultural commodity derivatives and to significant or critical contracts;
- introducing new exemptions to the position limits regime; and
- excluding securitised derivatives based on commodities or commodity indices from position limits.


26 July 2022
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1302 of 20 April 2022 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives and procedures for applying for exemption from position limits (Text with EEA relevance) published in the EU Official Journal

   

 


Important update
 

Directive (EU) 2021/338 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2021 amending Directive 2014/65/EU as regards information requirements, product governance and position limits, and Directives 2013/36/EU and (EU) 2019/878 as regards their application to investment firms, to help the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic substantially reduces the scope of commodity derivatives subject to position limits.

Position limits will only continue to apply to agricultural commodity derivatives and critical or significant commodity contracts.

An exemption from position limits is also introduced for positions held by financial and non-financial counterparties for positions that are objectively measurable as resulting from transactions entered into to fulfil obligations to provide liquidity on a trading venue.

The new provisions started to apply early in 2022.

"Article 57(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU on markets in financial instruments (MiFID II)1 foresees that a commodity derivative other than an agricultural commodity derivative qualifies as a critical or significant commodity derivative when the size of the net open interest is at minimum of 300,000 lots on average over a one-year period. Critical or significant commodity derivatives are subject to position limits" (ESMA Opinion of 20 December 2022 on position limits on ICE Endex Dutch TTF Gas contracts, ESMA70-55-12400).

Moreover, on 20 April 2022 the European Commission adopted Commission Delegated Regulation supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives and procedures for applying for exemption from position limits (C(2022) 2314 final), which contains three categories of amendments compared to RTS 21:

(1) Amendments relating to the CMRP empowerments.
– Articles 3(5), 7(2), 7(4), 8(3), 8(4) and 8(7) determine a procedure for the risk- reducing exemption for financial entities that are part of a predominantly commercial group.
– Articles 3(6), 9, 10 determine a procedure for applying for the liquidity provision exemption.

(2) Amendments that are a direct consequence of CMRP changes.
– Article 2 builds on the RTS 21 list of non-financial entities but turns it into a positive list of legal or natural persons defined as financial entities. It also clarifies that a third-country entity would be considered as a financial entity if it would require authorisation under any of the aforementioned legislation if it were based in the Union and subject to Union law. Non-financial entities are then in turn defined as legal or natural persons not qualifying as financial entities.
– Article 3(1) contains the reference to “commodity derivatives based on the same underlying and sharing the same characteristics” instead of “the same commodity derivative”.
– Article 5 no longer contains the reference to “Same commodity derivatives”.
– The maturity of the commodity derivative and the volatility in the relevant markets no longer appear as adjustment factors when establishing position limits.
– Securitised derivatives are deleted from the scope of position limits.

(3) Amendments based on the experience gained over the last few years with the existing methodology.
– Article 3(2) refers to spread contracts on the aggregation of positions.
– Article 11(1) specifies that, where the deliverable supply is significantly higher than the open interest, the NCA should set the baseline for the spot month limit as 25 % of the total open interest.
– Article 12(2) clarifies that the deliverable supply should be determined by reference to the average monthly amount of the underlying commodity available for delivery based on the most recent available data covering a one- year period immediately preceding the determination. For agricultural commodity derivatives, the reference period used for the calculation of deliverable supply can range from one to five years.
– Article 14(1) introduces four clarifications in the calculation of open interest. These clarifications are:
(i) the reference amount used for setting position limits include open interest in EEOTC contracts;
(ii) the open interest should be calculated on a net basis, based on position reporting data;
(iii) open interest is to be calculated “over a representative period of time” which would depend on the characteristics of the commodity derivative; and (iv) the calculation of open interest now caters for certain specific circumstances, such as a merger, transfer of activities or other corporate events.
– Article 17 simplifies the methodology for new and less liquid agricultural commodity derivatives and uses the same de minimis position limit for all agricultural commodity derivatives with an overall open interest below 20,000 lots over a consecutive three-month period.
– Article 19(2) clarifies that, where the open interest is significantly higher than the deliverable supply, the other months’ limit has to be adjusted downwards to avoid a cliff-edge effect with the spot month limit that is based on deliverable supply.
– Article 19(3) clarifies that, where the open interest is significantly lower than the deliverable supply, the other months’ limit should be adjusted upwards to avoid the risk of unduly constraining trading.

The existing RTS21 will be repealed.

These modifications are not reflected in the remainder of this article, which is mainly based on the previous legal framework. However, some parts remain applicable.

 

Verena Ross, Executive Director at the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), in Keynote speech at IDX 2015 on 9 June 2015 (ESMA/2015/921) underlined the EU position limits framework requires a "Herculean task" of crafting a methodology which "has to bring a number of contradictory elements together”: 

- it has to apply to, and work for, both very liquid and very illiquid contracts;

- it has to provide for a consistent approach to avoid arbitrage opportunities whilst allowing sufficient flexibility to deal with a wide range of contracts;

- it has to ensure limits are low enough to avoid squeezes without killing off contracts with only two or three participants.

 

The above source makes, moreover, a reference to the US position limits regime, in place for several decades, with the CFTC expanding its existing framework, applying to 9 agricultural contracts, to 28 core physical commodity contracts - the most liquid contracts - and to contracts which are economically equivalent to them (this number is to increase - see:

 

However, this can't be compared to the the EU position limits architecture, which is far more extensive.

 

The quantitative dimension of the implementation challenges ahead of the European regulators has been estimated by the ESMA's Chair at the level of around 1,500 liquid contracts for which position limits will have to be established by national regulators before 2018 with ESMA having to produce an opinion for every single contract (ECON MiFID II/MiFIR Scrutiny Session, 21 June 2016, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs European Parliament, Steven Maijoor, Chair, European Securities and Markets Authority, 21 June 2016 (ESMA/2016/940)). However, given no transitional provisions were foreseen in this area under MiFID II and considering large amounts of data to gather and analyse for the proper calibration of position limits, ESMA, together with the EU Member States’ National Competent Authorities (NCAs), agreed on 28 September 2017 that it would be not possible to finalise and publish all the position limit opinions for liquid commodity derivative contracts by the end of 2017 - the provisional framework was considered necessary.

 

The provisional procedure to be followed was set out in the “Public Statement, Joint work plan of ESMA and NCAs for opinions on MiFID II pre-trade transparency waivers and position limits” of 28 September 2017 (ESMA70-154-356).

 

According to the said agreement:

- NCAs were empowered to publish limits ahead of the ESMA’s opinions with the date of entry into force on 3 January 2018;

- following the issuance of ESMA’s opinions, all NCAs would have to modify the position limits in accordance with the opinion, or provide ESMA with a justification for why the change is not necessary;

- where NCAs would amend their initial decision for position limit after ESMA issued a non-compliant opinion, market participants would be given sufficient lead-time to adapt to the revised trading environment. 

quote            


The EU is going into new, unchartered territory by implementing the most extensive position limits regime in the world.

Steven Maijoor, ESMA Chair, MIFID/MIFIR - CSD hearing before ECON, 24 March 2015, ESMA/2015/620 

 
The purpose of these provisional rules was to let market participants know position limits sufficiently far in advance to apply for appropriate exemptions, enter positions with confidence or reduce positions which would not be permissible under the regime without damaging markets.

 

Position limits are a prominent MiFID II building block, the specificity thereof expressed in particular in the fact that the compliance is required of all persons, regardless of whether they are exempt from the scope of MiFID II under the provisions of Article 2 MiFID II, no matter:

 

At the same time the compliance with the position limits is a challenging task for industries and requires robust internal procedures and reporting lines as firms need to monitor aggregated positions across the globe and net any economically equivalent positions in real time (position limits are applicable not only at the end of each trading day but also throughout the trading day - at all times, this is particularly relevant when a commodity derivative is traded OTC outside the normal trading hours of a trading venue).

 

It is noteworthy in that regard that also some unauthorised firms will have to apply for exemptions from position limits.

 

Only positions held by or on behalf of non-financials which are objectively measurable as reducing risks directly relating to commercial activity (i.e. hedging) potentially do not count towards the limits - subject to the approval of the competent authority. 

MiFID2-position-limits 

In some cases such notification to the competent authority for an exemption will be necessary, given that the MiFID II legislative framework for position limits makes possible to establish quantitative thresholds for the maximum size of a position in a commodity derivative that persons can hold.

 

Hence, it is inherently involved with investment firms' and market operators' necessity to monitor expositions as well as to provide relevant client's information up to the position's ultimate beneficiary.

 

The respective MiFID II provisions are:

- Article 57(1), according to which the EU Member States must ensure that competent authorities “establish and apply position limits on the size of a net position which a person can hold at all times in commodity derivatives traded on trading venues and economically equivalent OTC contracts”,

- Article 69(1) and 69(2)(p), which clearly include, among supervisory powers granted to the EU Member States' competent financial authorities, also the general power to "limit the ability of any person from entering into a commodity derivative, including by introducing limits on the size of a position any person can hold at all times."

 

In principle, the said limits may be applied with respect to positions in commodity derivatives, no matter: physically or cash settled.

 

First ESMA's opinions on concrete position limits have been adopted on 10 August 2017 with respect to the agricultural products on the notification of the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) and related to the milling wheat, corn and the rapeseed EURONEXT contracts (Opinion on position limits on milling wheat No. 2 contract (ESMA70-155-983), Opinion on position limits on corn contract (ESMA70-155-988), Opinion on position limits on rapeseed contract (ESMA70-155-993)). They were followed on 24 October 2017 by ESMA’s opinions on MiFID II position limits on zinc, tin, nickel, lead, copper, aluminium, ICE white sugar, Robusta coffee and London cocoa contracts (notification of the UK FCA).

 

On 26 October 2017 the UK FCA published the list of position limits for commodity derivative contracts identified as trading on the UK trading venues.

 

Regulatory chronicle at the and of this article reflects subsequent developments in the respective area.

 

It is useful to observe that on 24 July 2020 DG FISMA of the European Commission proposed a series of changes to financial legislation with the objective of helping the markets in the light of Covid-19 (Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2014/65/EU as regards information requirements, product governance and position limits to help the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, COM(2020) 280 final, 2020/0152 (COD), {SWD(2020) 120 final}).

 

In terms of position limits the said proposal includes the following initiatives:

- limits would only apply to “critical” contracts (more than 300,000 lots) and agricultural derivatives,
- the concept of “equivalent contracts” would be greatly reduced,
- hedge exemptions would be available in some cases to financial counterparties,
- position management controls to be improved.


They are covered in greater detail in the respective passages. 

 

MiFID II position limits' scope

 

Position limits' scope should be considered firstly in terms of the types of markets and assets covered. 

 

 

MiFID II position limits do not apply to forwards in power or natural gas traded on an OTF that must be physically settled (REMIT carve-out).

 

 

Thus, the position limit calculations include: 

a. commodity derivatives traded on trading venues: 

regulated markets,

Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs),

Organised Trading Facilities (OTFs); as well as

b. OTC commodity derivatives contracts which are "economically equivalent" (the so-called “EEOTC contracts” - the respective criteria being specified in the secondary legislation).

 

The preliminary observation is, however, position limits scope is restricted to commodity derivatives.

 

 

MiFID II, Article 57(1)

 

Member States shall ensure that competent authorities, in line with the methodology for calculation determined by ESMA, establish and apply position limits on the size of a net position which a person can hold at all times in commodity derivatives traded on trading venues and economically equivalent OTC contracts...

 

Mindful of the fact that every time MiFID II wishes to encompass emission allowances, it makes a specific reference thereto (multiple phrases "commodity derivatives, emission allowances and derivatives thereof") and considering such a reference is absent in Article 59 of MiFID II regulating the application of position limits (it literally names only "commodity derivatives") it is appropriate to infer, emission allowances are not subject to MiFID II provisions on position limits. This opinion is supported, moreover, by the "commodity derivative" definition (Article 2(1)(30) of the MiFIR), where point 11 in Section C of the Annex I to MiFID II Directive (covering carbon credits) is not included.

 

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) unambiguously confirmed that "emission allowances classified as C(11) financial instruments for the purposes of MiFID II are explicitly required to be reported, but they will not have a position limit".

 

Contracts in securities (such as exchange traded products (ETPs)), which have a commodities underlying, are, in the ESMA’s opinion covered by the position limits legal framework since they are included within the definition of "commodity derivatives".

 

MiFIR, Article 2(1)(30)

 

‘commodity derivatives' mean those financial instruments defined in point (44)(c) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU; which relate to a commodity or an underlying referred to in Section C(10) of Annex I to Directive 2014/65/EU; or in points (5), (6), (7) and (10) of Section C of Annex I thereto

 

 

For the purpose of position limits regime "position" means the net accumulation of buy and sell transactions in a particular commodity derivative at a specific point in time that has yet to be closed out, expired, or exercised, as appropriate to the instrument concerned.

 

An alternative expression of this term is the "open interest" that is controlled by a person.

 

Market participants' positions will be monitored and position limits will be applied by the competent authorities with the use of data acquired through the MiFID II position reporting system. However, a practical difficulty may be the fact, as ESMA notes, "there is currently no universally adopted and harmonised set of product codes for identifying commodity derivatives. The two primary alternatives are the use of Alternative Instrument Identifier codes (AII) or the use of ISIN codes. A third, less optimal and more complicated alternative is to use a combination of both". The third alternative is not proposed by ESMA.

In turn, the UK FCA said that since MiFID II requires that position limits are set for each commodity derivative, position limits exemption should be applied for and will be approved on a commodity derivative contract basis. FCA underlined that the position limit applies per Venue Product Code so the different instrument types will be aggregated by the FCA in its calculation to determine whether a position limit has been breached.

clip2   Links

 

MiFID II/MiFIR position limits for commodity derivatives - ESMA website

 

UK FCA website on position limits

 

German BaFin website on position limits

  

French AMF website on position limits

 

ESMA’s list of liquid commodity derivatives contracts

 

FCA's listing of position limits for commodity derivatives contracts traded on a UK trading venues

 

Positions reporting under MiFID II

 

MiFID 2: how position limits affect metal trading strategies

 

Commodity Traders Face Tougher Rules as EU Curbs Speculation

 

Will MEPs stand up for financial stability over speculation?

 

MiFID II: Conservative and Liberal alliance fails to prevent damaging food and commodity speculation

For the purpose of position limits' monitoring the use of the Approved Reporting Mechanisms (ARMs) and trade repositories is also considered.

It is noteworthy, the aforementioned initiative of DG FISMA of 24 July 2020 included significant novelty i.e. the proposal to restrict the position limits’ scope to “critical” contracts (more than 300,000 lots) and agricultural derivatives only. According to the said proposition:

- position limits would be limited to derivatives with agricultural derivatives, in particular food for human consumption, as underlying and commodity derivatives traded on trading venues and in economically equivalent OTC (EEOTC) derivatives designated as significant or critical;

- the European Commission would mandate ESMA to draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) to determine the derivative characteristics in order to qualify as a significant or critical derivative and to define those agricultural derivatives subject to position limits, in particular those with food for human consumption as underlying;

- for the significant and critical derivatives, the criteria include an open interest of 300 000 lots over one year, the number of active market participants, and the underlying commodity;

- an open interest threshold for derivatives of a sufficiently high number of lots over a one-year period would ensure that only derivatives the price of which serves as a benchmark for the underlying commodity were captured;

- the relevant threshold for critical derivatives would be set at 300 000 lots, the other criteria would be determined in Level 2 instruments.

 

Application of position limits to positions in contracts that have been entered into prior to 3 January 2018

 

On 2 October 2018 (Questions and Answers on MiFID II and MiFIR commodity derivatives topics ESMA70-872942901-36, Question 18) ESMA specified its stance on the issue whether position limits also apply to positions in contracts that have been entered into prior to 3 January 2018 and are traded on a trading venue, including an OTF, or are economically equivalent OTC contracts (EEOTC) to those traded on a trading venue. According to the ESMA the answer to this issue is affirmative. ESMA explained that the position limits regime does apply to all positions in commodity derivatives offered by EU trading venues and EEOTC contracts, irrespective of the time when the contracts have been entered into. This is even the case if the relevant financial instrument was not a financial instrument at the time of the contract formation, e.g. prior to the application of MiFID II on 3 January 2018. This is because all positions in a MiFID II commodity derivative held by a position holder are assessed constantly and from the point of application.


Articles 57 and 58 of MiFID II do not refer to the formation of the contract in any of their provisions.

 

As soon as a financial instrument becomes subject to the position limits regime, the position limits apply to the positions of position holders and are to be reported and monitored against position limits.

 

graph

 Position limits values and methodology 

 

 

The requirement of Article 57(2) MiFID II for the quantitative thresholds for position limits to be 'clear', can, in principle, be fulfiled both: as a percentage relationship between a position and some measure of absolute deliverable supply or overall market size measure as well as an amount of lots of a specific contract on a trading venue or a quantity of the underlying in the contract (which may be tonnes, barrels, MWh, etc). 

 

The legislative proposition ESMA made in December 2014 draft regulatory technical standard specified the position limits in lots (the lot being defined as the unit of quantity used by the trading venue on which the commodity derivative contract trades).

 

The draft Regulation of 28 September 2015 modified the methodology for the calculation of position limits. The underlying assumption became to differentiate between spot and other months' contracts.

 

In this renewed drafting ESMA maintained its proposal that position limits in the spot month should be based on deliverable supply but decided, based on feedback, that position limits in other months should be based on total open interest (with the reservation that where there is no underlying deliverable supply for a commodity derivative, the spot month position limit should be based on an open interest too).

 

In the Opinion, Draft Regulatory Technical Standards on methodology for calculation and the application of position limits for commodity derivatives traded on trading venues and economically equivalent OTC contracts, 2 May 2016, ESMA/2016/668 ESMA expressed the view deliverable supply for the spot month and open interest for other months' is appropriate metrics and the right approach.

 

"The supply of the underlying commodity actually available is what matters when the contracts are nearing maturity whereas it is much less relevant for maturities that can go years into the future where open interest as a reflection of liquidity is the much more readily available and relevant metric," ESMA said in the above document. This conception gained a wide support in the ESMA's consultation. The US example, where this methodology "appears to be working seamlessly in practice", has also been invoked. The aforementioned ESMA's Opinion of 2 May 2016 also revised the definition of deliverable supply.

 

In order to avoid causing disorderly markets as the spot month approaches, and to reduce the scale of discrepancies between deliverable supply and open interest, deliverable supply was specified to include any substitute grades or types of a commodity that can be delivered in settlement of a commodity derivative contract under the terms of that contract.

 

Moreover, it was clarified that the other months' limit should be adjusted if the open interest is either significantly higher or lower than the deliverable supply.

 

The said revised ESMA's approach has been widely implemented in the subsequent Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives (RTS 21).

 

UK FCA in the Q&As stressed that the spot/other month categorisation for position limits and position reporting is driven by the date of expiry of the position, not the execution date.

 

Important preliminary remark when it comes to position limits’ values is the categorisation of liquid and illiquid contracts.

 

For illiquid contracts, the spot month and the other months' limits are set by default in Article 15 of RTS 21 and amount to 2,500 lots or 2,5 million securities issued in the case of securitized derivatives.

 

Liquid contracts receive bespoke position limits set by the relevant National Regulatory Authorities.

 

Hence, the key document is the ESMA’s list of liquid commodity derivatives contracts for the purposes of positions limits.

 

Another important general observation is that on 16 October 2017 ESMA has enabled access to the Financial Instruments Reference Data System (FIRDS), which is intended, inter alia, to support market data calculations for the purposes of position limits.

 

"Spot month" definition

 

 

Spot month contract in the context of the EU position limits regime means the commodity derivative contract in relation to a particular underlying commodity whose maturity is the next to expire in accordance with the rules set by the trading venue.

 


'Spot month' with reference to the position limits regime is understood broadly. The spot month period does not necessarily correspond to a time period which is a month but rather is specific to each commodity derivative contract and is the contract next to expire, as determined by the rules of the relevant trading venue, i.e. it could be 3 days, 2 weeks, 3 months etc.

A contract that is economically equivalent OTC to an exchange-traded derivative (ETD) is considered a spot month contract when the commodity derivative traded on a trading venue to which it is equivalent is the spot month.

 

For securitised commodity derivatives which do not have a maturity date or a series of different maturity dates no difference is made between the spot month and other months' for the purposes of the position limits regime.

 

In the Questions and Answers, on MiFID II and MiFIR commodity derivatives topics (ESMA70-872942901-28, answer to the Question 15 updated on 15 December 2017) ESMA explained the definition of the spot month for contracts where there are daily, weekly, quarterly and calendar as well as monthly variants of the same contract.

 

According to the said ESMA’s clarification, the determination of the spot month for the application of the spot month position limit should be made by the NCA on the basis of the contract specification and the characteristics of the market for that particular commodity derivative.

 

Where there are daily or weekly as well as monthly contracts, the positions to be included in the spot month period and subject to the position limit, include positions in contracts referencing days or weeks which fall entirely inside that spot month. For many contracts, the spot month will be the current calendar month in which delivery is taking place (until the final day of that month). For example, between 1 and 30 January, January is the spot month. In other contracts, where e.g. the January contract expires at the end of December, the spot month will change to the next calendar month which is available to trade. For these contracts, for most of January, the spot month will be February (and positions in any days or weeks falling wholly within February will count towards the spot month limit).

 

Spot month limits

 

Spot month position limits for cash settled and physically settled commodity derivatives are based on a percentage of deliverable supply and the baseline is set at the 25%.

 

The exception is the spot month position limits for cash settled commodity derivatives with no deliverable supply (commodity derivatives listed under Annex I, Section C10 e.g. weather) which are based on a percentage of total open interest in the spot month.

 

In the draft RTS of 28 September 2015 ESMA changed the earlier approach (as in the December 19, 2014 draft RTS), and adopted a more stringent formulation, i.e. by allowing Member States competent authorities to increase the 25% baseline position limit to only 35% and to decrease to 5% of the deliverable supply. By adopting this assymetric spread, ESMA has diminished the size of position limits in comparison with December 2014 methodology.

 

ESMA also noted that it is possible to adopt this more stringent approach as new and illiquid contracts will be subject to a special regime. Crafting a special regime for new and illiquid contracts has enabled to adopt a more demanding regime for other contracts. The resulting two tiered regime reflects better the different trading characteristics of the instruments.

 

National regulators are making use of this discretionary power, for example German financial regulator (BaFin), competent for the EEX platform, determined (with the positive opinion of ESMA):

- the spot month limit for the PXE Czech Financial Baseload Futures contract (a cash-settled derivative contract referring to the average power spot market price of future delivery periods of the Czech market area) at 3,446,281 MWh, which represents 20% of the deliverable supply - ESMA’s Opinion of 23 May 2019 on position limits on PXE Czech Financial Baseload Futures contracts, ESMA70-155-4451, and

- the spot month limit for the French Power Base Futures and Options contracts at 25,222,306 MWh, which represents 25% of the deliverable supply - ESMA’s Opinion of 23 May 2019 on position limits on EEX French Power Base contracts, ESMA70-155-2941,

- the spot month limit for the French Power Peak Future contract (a derivative contract referring to the average power spot market price of future delivery periods of the French market area, the contracts can be either physically delivered or cash settled) at 4,378,303 MWh, which represents 12% of the deliverable supply - ESMA’s Opinion of 23 May 2019 on position limits on EEX French Power Base contracts, ESMA70-155-2925.

 

Deliverable supply include in this regard daily contracts, weekend contracts, weekly contracts and monthly contract.

 

 

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives

 

Article 9

 

(Article 57(4) of Directive 2014/65/EU)

 

Methodology for determining the baseline figure for spot month limits

 

1. Competent authorities shall determine a baseline figure for the spot month position limit in a commodity derivative by calculating 25% of the deliverable supply for that commodity derivative.

 

2. The baseline figure shall be specified in lots which shall be the unit of trading used by the trading venue on which the commodity derivative trades representing a standardised quantity of the underlying commodity.

 

3. Where a competent authority establishes different position limits for different times within the spot month period, those position limits shall decrease on an incremental basis towards the maturity of the commodity derivative and shall take into account the position management arrangements of the trading venue.

 

4. By way of derogation to paragraph 1, competent authorities shall determine the baseline figure for the spot month position limit for any derivative contract with an underlying that qualifies as food intended for human consumption with a total combined open interest in spot and other months' contracts exceeding 50,000 lots over a consecutive three month period by calculating 20% of the deliverable supply in that commodity derivative.

 

Article 10


(Article 57(3) of Directive 2014/65/EU)

 

Deliverable supply

 

1. Competent authorities shall calculate the deliverable supply for a commodity derivative by identifying the quantity of the underlying commodity that can be used to fulfil the delivery requirements of the commodity derivative.

 

2. Competent authorities shall determine the deliverable supply for a commodity deriviative referred to in paragraph 1 by reference to the average monthly amount of the underlying commodity available for delivery over the one year period immediately preceding the determination.

 

3. In order to identify the quantity of the underlying commodity meeting the conditions of paragraph 1, competent authorities shall take into account the following criteria:

(a) the storage arrangements for the underlying commodity;

(b) the factors that may affect the supply of the underlying commodity.

 

Article 14


(Article 57(3) of Directive 2014/65/EU)

 

Assessment of factors


Competent authorities shall set the spot month and other months' position limits for a commodity derivative by taking the baseline figure determined in accordance with Articles 9, 11 and 13 and adjusting it according to the potential impact of the factors referred to in Articles 16 to 20 on the integrity of the market for that derivative and for its underlying commodity to a limit:


(a) between 5% and 35%; or


(b) between 2.5% and 35%, for any derivative contract with an underlying that qualifies as food intended for human consumption with a total combined open interest in spot and other months' contracts exceeding 50,000 lots over a consecutive three month period.

 

Recital 11

 

The spot-month period, which is the time period immediately before delivery at expiry, is specific to each commodity derivative and may not correspond to exactly one month. Spot month contracts should therefore refer to the contract that is the next contract in that commodity derivative to mature. Restricting the positions a person may hold in the period during which delivery of the physical commodity is to be made limits the quantity of the underlying deliverable supply each person may make or take delivery of, thereby preventing the accumulation of dominant positions by individuals which may enable them to squeeze the market through restricting access to the commodity. The standard baseline for the spot month position limit for both physically and cash settled commodity derivatives should therefore be computed as a percentage of the deliverable supply estimate. Competent authorities should be able to implement a schedule of decreasing position limits ranging from the point in time when a contract becomes a spot month contract until maturity in order to more precisely ensure that position limits are adequately set throughout the spot month period and to ensure orderly settlement.

 

Recital 13


The standard baseline of 25% of deliverable supply and of open interest has been set with reference to the experience of other markets and other jurisdictions. The baseline should be adjusted by competent authorities to enable it to be reduced by a maximum of 20% (or 22.5% in the case of some agricultural commodity derivatives) and to be increased by a maximum of 10% (or 15% in the case of less liquid commodity derivatives) should the characteristics of the market require it, such as an absence of market participants, in order to support the orderly settlement and functioning of the contract and its underlying market. Since any adjustment to the baseline figure applies only where, and for so long as, objective characteristics of the market require it, temporary adjustments to the baseline should be therefore possible. Competent authorities should ensure that an adjustment downwards of the baseline is effected whenever it is necessary to prevent dominant positions and to support orderly pricing in the commodity derivative and in the underlying commodity. The range reflects that Directive 2014/65/EU covers a wider range of commodity derivatives and markets than other markets and jurisdictions. The definition of commodity derivative under Article 2(1)(30) of Regulation 600/2014 of the European Parliament and the Council is broad, comprising also securitised derivatives and cash settled derivatives which do not have a tangible underlying such as climatic variables. For securitised derivatives the concept of spot and other months' does not apply. For derivatives without a tangible underlying the deliverable supply cannot be used to establish a position limit. Therefore competent authorities should be able to enhance or adjust the methodologies to determine position limits for these commodity derivatives based on different parameters like number of securities issued or the use of open interest also for the spot month.

 

 

Other months' limits

 

The other months' period is the whole of the curve of the contract, excluding the spot month period. The other months' limits for both cash settled and physically settled commodity derivatives are based on a percentage of total open interest in the commodity contract excluding open interest in the spot month. Other months' limits are calculated as 25% of average annual open interest, expressed in lots in the underlying commodity ('the baseline').

 

The assymetric spread for the other months' positions limit has also been adopted - giving Member States competent authorities the power to adjust the baseline down to 5% and only up to 35% of open interest, taking into account specific factors (listed under Article 57(3)(a) to (g) of MiFID II).

  

 

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives

 

Article 11

 

(Article 57(4) of Directive 2014/65/EU) 

 

Methodology for determining the baseline figure for other months' limits

 

1. Competent authorities shall determine a baseline figure for the other months' position limit in a commodity derivative by calculating 25% of the open interest in that commodity derivative.

 

2. The baseline figure shall be specified in lots which shall be the unit of trading used by the trading venue on which the commodity derivative trades representing a standardised quantity of the underlying commodity.

 

Article 12


(Article 57(3) of Directive 2014/65/EU)

 

Open interest


Competent authorities shall calculate the open interest in a commodity derivative by aggregating the number of lots of that commodity derivative that are outstanding on trading venues at a point in time.

 

Recital 12

 

The other months' position limit is applied across all maturities other than the spot month. The standard baseline for the other months' position limits for both physically and cash settled commodity derivatives should be computed as a percentage of the total open interest. The distribution of positions across the other months' of a commodity contract is often concentrated in the months closest to maturity. Therefore total open interest provides a more appropriate baseline for setting position limits than using a figure averaged across all maturities.

 

 

Lots as a metrics for the baseline figures' calculation

 

Baseline figures for spot month as well as other months' limits are to be specified in lots which are defined as "the units of trading used by the trading venue on which the commodity derivative trades representing a standardised quantity of the underlying commodity" (Articles 9 and 11 of the Commission Delegated Regulation, respectively). In turn, in the case of Economically Equivalent OTC contracts (EEOTC), where an OTC contract is not defined in standardised lots of an exchange-traded derivative, the size of the contract should be calculated as a multiple of the standard unit of trading used by the trading venue for the commodity derivative to which the OTC contract is equivalent.

 

New and illiquid contracts

 

Specific rules have been envisioned for new and illiquid contracts (see Article 15 of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016). Trading venues have been subjected to the obligation to notify the competent authority if the total open interest of any such commodity derivative reaches any of the amounts of lots or number of securities in issue over a consecutive three month period. Article 15 states that new and illiquid contracts for which the total combined open interest in spot and other months’ contracts does not exceed 10,000 lots for a consecutive three-month period are assigned a position limit of 2,500 lots. Therefore, any contract with a high variability would have to exceed the threshold of 10,000 lots of open interest on a daily basis based on end-of-day figures for three consecutive months before an individualised position limit has to be set for that contract (ESMA's clarification of 29.03.2017).

 

 

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives

 

Article 15

 


(Article 57(3)(g) of Directive 2014/65/EU)

 

New and illiquid contracts


1. By way of derogation to Article 14, 


 

(a) for commodity derivatives traded on a trading venue with a total combined open interest in spot and other months' contracts not exceeding 10,000 lots over a consecutive three month period, competent authorities shall set the limit of positions held in those commodity derivatives at 2,500 lots; 


 

(b) for commodity derivatives traded on a trading venue with a total combined open interest in spot and other months' contracts in excess of 10,000 but not exceeding 20,000 lots over a consecutive three month period, competent authorities shall set the spot and other months' position limit between 5% and 40%; 


 

(c) for commodity derivatives as defined in point (c) of Article 4(1)(44) of Directive 2014/65/EU with a total number of securities in issue not exceeding 10 million over a consecutive three month period, the competent authority shall set the limit of positions held in those commodity derivatives at 2.5 million securities; 


 

(d) for commodity derivatives as defined in point (c) of Article 4(1)(44) of Directive 2014/65/EU with a total number of securities in issue in excess of 10 million but not exceeding 20 million over a consecutive three month period, the competent authority shall set the spot and other months' position limit between 5% and 40%.


2. The trading venue shall notify the competent authority when the total open interest of any such commodity derivative reaches any of the amounts of lots or number of securities in issue mentioned in the previous paragraph over a consecutive three month period. Competent authorities shall review the position limit upon receiving such notifications.

 

Recital 14

 

Certain commodity derivatives, in particular for power and gas, provide that the underlying be delivered constantly over a specified period of time such as day, month or year. Moreover, certain contracts with longer delivery periods such as year or quarter may be automatically substituted by related contracts of shorter delivery periods such as quarter or month (cascading contracts). In these cases, a spot month position limit for the contract to be substituted prior to delivery would be inappropriate, as such limit would not cover the expiry and physical delivery or cash settlement of the contract. To the extent that delivery periods of contracts for the same underlying overlap, a single position limit should apply to all the related contracts in order to properly take into account the positions across those contracts which may potentially be delivered. To facilitate this, related contracts should be measured in units of the underlying and aggregated and netted accordingly.

 

 

In the answer to the Question 2 (Questions and Answers on MiFID II and MiFIR commodity derivatives topics updated 11 November 2017 ESMA referred to the issue of the the definition of a lot for the application of Article 15(1)(a) and (b) (New and illiquid contracts) of RTS 21 to those commodity derivatives for which a lot, as defined in the contract specification by the trading venue, does not represent a standard quantity of the underlying across all maturities/delivery periods for that commodity derivative.

Firstly, ESMA observed that in some derivative markets (mainly related to power or gas), trading venues offer trading in derivative contracts that refer to an identical underlying but have a variety of delivery periods, e.g. annual (calendar), quarterly, monthly, weekly (whole week, working day week and weekend) or daily. For these contracts a lot or unit of trading, as defined in the contract specification by the trading venue, does not necessarily represent a standard quantity of underlying across all maturities/delivery periods, i.e. the lot size for a daily contract is different from that for a monthly contract as the lot size usually depends on the number of relevant days and/or hours in the delivery period.

For baseload power derivatives, this is illustrated by the following table:

 

 Delivery period

 Unit of trading (1 Lot = 1MW) 

 Quantity of underlying commodity (baseload)

 Lot size 

 1 day

 1 MW

 24 MWh

 24 h

 1 week – 7 days 

 1 MW

 168 MWh

 168 h

 1 month – 30 days 

 1 MW

 720 MWh

 720 h

 

Since there is not an unambiguous equivalence between a lot and an absolute quantity of underlying commodity, it is necessary to define a reference period and use the associated lot size to determine the liquidity of a contract under Article 15(1)(a) and (b) of RTS 21 and to set position limits under Article 15(1)(a) of RTS 21. As the trading activity in European power and gas derivative markets is generally concentrated in monthly contracts, the period of the monthly contract should be used as the reference period. To determine liquidity and set position limits for illiquid contracts the associated lot size should be calculated by using the relevant days and/or hours as specified by the trading venue for that particular contract type. ESMA concluded this thread with the following example of the lot size calculation for a monthly base load and a monthly peak load power derivative contract:

Base load lot size = 30 days * 24 hours/day = 720 h, 10,000 lots are equivalent to 7.2 TWh,

Peak load lot size: 22 days * 12 hours/day = 264 h, 10,000 lots are equivalent to 2.64 TWh.

ESMA Consultation Paper of 5 November 2019 (MiFID II review report on position limits and position management, Draft Technical Advice on weekly position reports, ESMA70-156-148, p. 16) referred to respondents’ views on some possible improvements to the position limits regime on new and illiquid contracts. The said respondents noted, in particular, that the current de minimis threshold of 2,500 lots for those contracts with a total combined open interest not exceeding 10,000 lots, is too restrictive especially when the open interest in such contracts approaches the threshold of 10,000 lots.

The Q&A published by ESMA clarifying that the conditions under which Article 19(2) of RTS 21 could be used for setting limits for new and illiquid contracts was deemed useful but insufficient to deal with the issue. Respondents highlighted that there is typically a small number of rather large counterparties trading new contracts before a broader set of participants seeking liquidity potentially joins. Due to overly restrictive limits, participants are often forced to reduce their positions, which results in a reduction of the overall open interest and ultimately impacts the growth of the contract and the move to bespoke limits.

 

Position limits on options

 

According to the ESMA’s stance expressed in Questions and Answers on MiFID II and MiFIR commodity derivatives topics (updated on 19 December 2016 and 11 November 2017), separate limits will not be set for futures and options on the same commodity derivative. 

In the reasons, ESMA referred to the facts that:

- futures and options are fungible in terms of their economic effect at expiry if an option expires in the money with the respective future expiring at the same time,

- during the life of an option contract, the probability of the option expiring in the money is reflected in its delta value.

Therefore, option positions should be converted into positions in their respective future contracts positions on the basis of the current delta to arrive at a delta equivalent futures position.

Long delta equivalent positions on calls and short delta equivalent positions on puts should be added to long positions on futures. Short delta equivalent positions on calls and long delta equivalent positions on puts should be added to short positions on futures. If available, position holders should use the delta value published by the trading venue or the CCP to report their positions in options. In the absence of a published delta value, position holders may use their own calculation. Position holders should be able to demonstrate, on demand, to the National Competent Authority responsible for the application of the position limit that their calculations correctly reflect the value of the option.

According to ESMA, the open interest of futures should be used for both futures and options on the same underlying. The above stance on position limits on options was formulated by the ESMA on 19 December 2016.

 

On 11 November 2017 ESMA supplemented this opinion by saying that to determine which contracts are liquid under Article15 of RTS 21 and also to establish position limits based on the quantity of open interest, the open interest of futures plus the delta-adjusted open interest of options should be used, where there is a future and/or option traded on the commodity derivative and the relevant data are available.

 

Pursuant to the ESMA, this is consistent with the reporting of positions made under Article 58 of RTS 21.

 

Position limits' application to the "exotic derivatives" (various underlyings listed in Annex I, Section C(10) of MIFID II)

 

On 29 March 2017 ESMA has issued a clarification, taking the form of the Q&As document and setting out the approach to a number of different types of commodity derivatives covered by Section C(10) of Annex I of MIFID II, such as freight rate derivatives, indices, spreads, etc.

 

Freight rate derivatives (wet and dry freight)

 

Acoording to the above ESMA's opinion, position limits should be applied to freight rate derivatives (wet and dry freight) based on the open interest both in the spot month and in the other months.

 

Derivative contracts relating to indices

 

ESMA also said that position limits should be applied to derivative contracts relating to indices if the underlying index is materially based on commodity underlyings as defined in Article 2 No. 6 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565 of 25 April 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards organisational requirements and operating conditions for investment firms and defined terms for the purposes of that Directive.

 

ESMA considers that the underlying index derivative is materially based on commodities if such commodities have a weighting of more than 50% in the composition of the underlying index.

 

The spot and the other months’ limits should be based on open interest only, in accordance with Article 13(1) of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 as no single measurable deliverable supply can be determined for the commodities contained within the index.

 

Commodity derivative contract in the form of a “spread” or “diff” contract

 

A commodity derivative contract in the legal form of a “spread” or “diff” contract is a contract that is cash-settled and whose value is determined by the difference between two reference commodities which may vary in type, grade, location, time of delivery, or other features.

 

Whilst having multiple commodity values underlying it, the commodity derivative is available on a trading venue as a single tradable financial instrument.

 

A spread contract is different to a spread trading strategy, when two or more commodity derivative contracts may be traded together in order to achieve a certain economic effect. Such a strategy may be executed by a single action in a venue’s trading systems, but it remains composed of separate and legally distinct commodity derivatives which are executed as trades simultaneously. As a spread contract has no single commodity at a specific place or time as the underlying, it is not possible to link it to a single physical deliverable supply against a contractual obligation to physically settle the trade. It is for this reason all spread contracts are cash-settled and not physically settled.

 

Article 57(4) of MiFID II states ‘A competent authority shall set limits for each contract in commodity derivatives traded on trading venues based on the methodology [...]’.

 

Whilst specifically referencing each contract, this should refer to outright instruments (i.e. the disaggregated components of spreads) and the limits be applied at that level. The prevailing limits will apply to the net eligible positions, inclusive of spread limits, post-disaggregation.


In cases where a constituent leg is not independently admitted for trading, then the spread itself will receive a limit (de minimis or bespoke). In these cases, the same methodology as for C10 commodity derivatives that have no physical underlying will apply, as such the open interest figure for the spread shall be used as the baseline for both the spot month and other months’ limits.

 

Other derivatives listed in Section C10 of Annex I of MiFID

 

For other derivatives listed in Section C10 of Annex I of MiFID II and in Article 8 of Commission Delegated Regulation of 25 April 2016, ESMA is not expecting the setting of any position limits as the underlyings of such derivatives are not considered to be commodities as defined in Article 2 No. 6 of Commission Delegated Regulation of 25 April 2016.

Netting

 

 Positions' netting 

 

 

When calculating position limit in commodity derivative pursuant to MiFID II the size of a net position is relevantPursuant to Article 57(12)(c) MiFID II ESMA was required to develop draft regulatory technical standards to determine "the methodology for aggregating and netting OTC and on-venue commodity derivatives positions to establish the net position for purposes of assessing compliance with the limits."

 

 

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives

 

Article 3


(Article 57(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU)

 

Aggregation and netting of positions in a commodity derivative


1. The net position of a person in a commodity derivative shall be the aggregation of its positions held in that commodity derivative traded on a trading venue, in commodity derivatives considered the same commodity derivative to that commodity derivative in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 5, and in economically equivalent OTC contracts pursuant to Article 6.


2. Where a person holds both long and short positions in any of the commodity derivatives referred to in paragraph 1, the person shall net those positions to determine its net position for that commodity derivative.


3. Positions held by a non-financial entity in commodity derivatives that are objectively measureable as reducing risks in accordance with Article 7, as approved by the competent authority pursuant to Article 8, shall not be aggregated for the purposes of determining the net position of that non-financial entity.


4. A person shall determine separately the net position it holds in a commodity derivative for both the spot month contracts and the other months' contracts.

 


Article 4


(Article 57(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU)


 

Method of calculating positions for legal entities within a group


1. A parent undertaking shall determine its net position by aggregating the following positions in accordance with Article 3:

(a) its own net position;

(b) the net positions of each of its subsidiary undertakings.

 

2. By way of derogation to paragraph 1, the parent undertaking of a collective investment undertaking or, where the collective investment undertaking has appointed a management company, the parent undertaking of that management company shall not aggregate the positions in commodity derivatives in any collective investment undertaking where it does not in any way influence the investment decisions in respect of opening, holding or closing those positions.

 

 

The said provision also stipulates that criteria with respect to positions' netting must not facilitate the build-up of positions in a manner inconsistent with the objectives set out in MiFID II.

 

In its Final Report of 28 September 2015 ESMA underlined that for the purposes of the MiFID II position limits regime the person's position is established by:

 

i. summing up its positions in:

- the commodity derivative contracts,

- the same commodity derivative contracts, and

- economically a equivalent OTC contracts (EEOTC contracts);

 

and, where the person holds both long and short positions, in netting them down;

 

ii. aggregating its positions with the positions in that commodity derivative contract of its subsidiary undertakings (save for certain limited exceptions).

 

The terms "the same commodity derivative contract" and "the EEOTC contract"  are explained below. 

 

As regards the aggregation of positions within the corporate groupings the organisations EFET, Eurelectric, EUROPEX in the document Ensuring effective and efficient regulation of European commodity derivative markets of 4 September 2015 argued that positions' aggregation should be restricted to a person's fully consolidated subsidiaries only, however, the binding rules do not reflect explicitly this postulate.

 

Instead, Article 4 the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 mandates the netting of positions of "subsidiary undertakings" and Recital 4 of the said Regulation refers to aggregation at the group level if a parent undertaking "can control the use of positions".

 

The said Recital 4  states:

"Directive 2014/65/EU requires that any positions held by other persons on behalf of a person should be included in the calculation of that person's position limit and for position limits to be applied at both an entity level and at a group level and it is therefore necessary to aggregate positions at a group level. It is appropriate to only provide for aggregation at the group level if a parent undertaking can control the use of positions. Accordingly, parent undertakings should aggregate positions held by their subsidiaries with any positions that the parent entity holds directly, in addition to the subsidiaries aggregating their own positions. Such aggregation can lead to positions calculated at the level of the parent undertaking which are larger or, due to a netting of long and short positions held by different subsidiaries, lower than at individual subsidiary level. Positions should not be aggregated at the level of the parent undertaking if the positions are held by collective investment undertakings which hold those positions on behalf of their investors rather than on behalf of their parent undertakings in cases where the parent undertaking cannot control the use of those positions for its own benefit."

 

Spot month and other months positions' separation

 

It appears, derivative contracts are capable of being aggregated or netted only after converted into the same metric, however such a "leveling" will rise difficulties with respect to positions with different tenor or maturity, different lot sizes or pricing currency or a similar but different underlying commodity.

 

As a consequence of different methodology of the calculation of position limits for spot and other months' contracts proposed by ESMA on 28 September 2015, it was envisioned, however, that netting should be applied separately to the spot month and other months' positions.

 

The respective Recital 3 of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 provides for the following:

"Long and short positions in a commodity derivative of market participants should be netted off against each other to determine the effective size of a position a person controls at any point in time. The size of a position held through an option contract should be calculated on a delta equivalent basis. As this Regulation applies a different methodology to the calculation of position limits for spot and other months' contracts, such netting should be applied separately to the spot and other months' positions."

 

In the Q&As ESMA confirmed, moreover, that "position limits apply to net positions regardless of whether the net position is long or short. When calculating their positions, a person needs to aggregate their long and short holdings in spot contracts towards the spot month limit. They separately need to aggregate all their long and short positions for all other months towards the other months' limit."

 

Positions with different maturities for other months' limits must also be netted. According to ESMA persons must determine their net position for each commodity derivative for the other months' limit, as indicated in Article 3(4) of the Commission Delegated Regulation.

 

They should sum (or net, as appropriate) all individual positions across the curve excluding those positions in the spot month for that commodity derivative.

 

Also the UK FCA underlined that separate positions with different maturities across the curve within the non-spot month period should be summed or netted to apply the other months’ limits - excluding only positions in the spot month for that commodity derivative.

 

"Same commodity derivatives" 

 

 

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives

 

Article 5(1)


A commodity derivative traded on a trading venue shall be considered the same commodity derivative as a commodity derivative traded on another trading venue where the following conditions are met:


(a) both commodity derivatives have identical contractual specifications, terms and conditions, excluding post trade risk management arrangements;


(b) both commodity derivatives form a single fungible pool of open interest or, in the case of commodity derivatives defined under point (c) of Article 4(1)(44) of Directive 2014/65/EU, of securities in issue by which the positions held in a commodity derivative traded on one trading venue may be closed out against the positions held in the commodity derivative traded on the other trading venue.

 

Recital 5

 

The concept of the same commodity derivative should establish a demanding threshold to prevent persons from inappropriately netting positions across dissimilar commodity derivatives in order to circumvent and weaken the robustness of the position limit on the principal commodity derivative contract. This should not prevent competent authorities from setting similar position limits for similar commodity derivative contracts under the coordination of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Commodity derivatives should only be considered as trading in significant volume on a trading venue if they exceed the liquidity threshold specified in this Regulation for a sufficient period of time.

 

 

"The concept of the same commodity derivative should establish a demanding threshold to prevent persons from inappropriately netting positions across dissimilar commodity derivatives in order to circumvent and weaken the robustness of the position limit on the principal commodity derivative contract," reads the Recital 5 of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016.

 

A central competent authority has the responsibility for setting the position limits on the same commodity derivative, when the same commodity derivative is traded in more than one jurisdiction within the EU.

 

Article 57(12)(d) of MiFID II envisions the delegation to secondary acts to determine what constitutes "the same commodity derivative".

 

In the ESMA's view, the 'same' is a subset of economically equivalent. A commodity derivative is the same if it is at least economically equivalent. In addition to be considered the same it must have other equivalent properties, such as accepting the same deliverable supply for settlement, and that the contracts are traded under, or with reference to, the same set of trading venue rules and form part of a single fungible pool of open interest. ESMA notes that a cash-settled contract is not the same as a physically-settled contract and, by definition, an EEOTC contract cannot be the same as a contract that is traded on a trading venue under the rules of that trading venue. "Same commodity derivative" in the ESMA's view is a contract traded on a trading venue which is economically equivalent to another commodity derivative traded on a trading venue with the additional requirement that both contracts form a single fungible pool of open interest, or, in the case of securitised commodity deriviatives, of securities in issue.

 

Article 5(1) of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 has stipulated that a commodity derivative traded on a trading venue is considered the same commodity derivative as a commodity derivative traded on another trading venue where the following conditions are met:

(a) both commodity derivatives have identical contractual specifications, terms and conditions, excluding post trade risk management arrangements;
(b) both commodity derivatives form a single fungible pool of open interest or, in the case of commodity derivatives defined under point (c) of Article 4(1)(44) of Directive 2014/65/EU, of securities in issue by which the positions held in a commodity derivative traded on one trading venue may be closed out against the positions held in the commodity derivative traded on the other trading venue.

 

ESMA has explained on 29 March 2017 that commodity derivatives with "a single fungible pool of open interest" for the purposes of the above provision include those cleared by the same central counterparty (CCP) and those in interoperable CCPs which may be closed out against each other.

 

This term also includes other commodity derivatives with delivery obligations which are fungible and can be closed out against each other (for example, through the operational netting provided by a transmission system operator).

 

Economically equivalent OTC contracts - EEOTC

 

It has been proposed by ESMA that holdings in identical contracts, whether listed on the same trading venue or cross-listed on multiple trading venues, or contracts that meet the criteria of "economically equivalent OTC contract" (EEOTC), should be included within the calculation of a person's position whether held on the same venue, across multiple venues, or executed bilaterally OTC.

 

It is envisioned that the competent authority of the trading venue on which the commodity derivative is traded will set the position limit applicable to the commodity derivative and its EEOTC contract, regardless of where in the EU the EEOTC is traded.

 

In the Final Report of 28 September 2015 ESMA defined the EEOTC "as a contract which has the identical contractual specifications and terms and conditions, excluding post trade risk management arrangements, as a contract traded on a trading venue".

 

With respect to the issue of proper identification of EEOTC ESMA considered that "conclusive list of EEOTC contracts would be very helpful", but creating such a list "may be unworkable and would in any event need to be regularly updated."

 

Also the UK FCA in the Q&As MiFID II commodity derivatives said there will be no authorised list of EEOTC contracts and that it is the responsibility of the investment firm who enters into an OTC transaction to determine whether it is an EEOTC contract in accordance with MIFID II.

 

Some hazards of mandatory netting of "economically equivalent" derivative contracts have been raised.

 

Among them is the fact that "economically equivalent" derivative contracts are not the same, and variations in national insolvency regimes may in many cases cause such contracts will not be able to be netted.

 

In effect, EFET, Eurelectric, EUROPEX and other organisations in the aforementioned document of 4 September 2015 asked the European Commission to support amendments to the draft RTS to:

(a) require the prior consent of all trading venues for the netting of economically equivalent contracts, and

(b) provide appropriate discretion for CCPs to determine where netting is permissible.

 

On the other hand, it was often commented, the definition of 'economically equivalent OTC contracts' is very narrow since the OTC contract must have not similar, but identical specifications to the contract on a trading venue, to qualify.

 

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives

 

Article 6


(Article 57(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU)


OTC contracts economically equivalent to commodity derivatives traded on trading venues

 

An OTC derivative shall be considered economically equivalent to a commodity derivative traded on a trading venue where it has identical contractual specifications, terms and conditions, excluding different lot size specifications, delivery dates diverging by less than one calendar day and different post trade risk management arrangements.

 

Recital 6

 

Where an over-the-counter (OTC) contract is valued on the same underlying commodity that is deliverable at the same location and with the same contractual conditions and if it is having a highly correlated economic outcome to a contract traded on a trading venue, it should be deemed economically equivalent regardless of small differences in the contractual specifications concerning the lot sizes and the date of delivery. Also differences in post trade risk management arrangements, such as clearing arrangements, should not be barriers to declaring such contracts as economically equivalent. In order to prevent inappropriate netting of potentially dominant positions traded on a trading venue by the use of bilateral arrangements in OTC contracts and to ensure an efficient operation of the position limits regime in practice it is necessary for commodity derivatives traded OTC to be considered economically equivalent to trading venue contracts only in limited circumstances. To deter avoidance of position limits and to enhance the integrity of the position limit regime it is necessary that a definition of an economically equivalent OTC contract is narrowly framed so that it does not permit a person to net an OTC position against multiple other positions or to exercise discretion in the choice of positions against which it is netted.

 

 

In case of very limited number of contracts falling under the EEOTC category, this would have a direct impact on restricted netting possibilities, and as a consequence, more firms impacted by position limits (see also: MiFID II position limits regime - be mindful of EEOTC (Economically-Equivalent OTC Contracts)!).

 

In the Opinion, Draft Regulatory Technical Standards on methodology for calculation and the application of position limits for commodity derivatives traded on trading venues and economically equivalent OTC contracts, 2 May 2016, ESMA/2016/668 ESMA acknowledged the concern that the definition of EEOTC is too specific and therefore may allow contracts that are similar to on-venue contracts not to be considered when establishing the net position of a specific market participant and thus allow circumvention of the position limit regime's purpose by spreading positions across exchange-traded and OTC contracts.

 

The argument, however, has been also raised that drafting the EEOTC definition in too wide a fashion carries an even higher risk of enabling circumvention of position limits by creating an ability to net off positions taken in on-venue contracts against only roughly similar OTC positions which would have the potential to undermine a general decision taken at Level 1.

 

ESMA has therefore covered two additional possibilities where the contractual specifications might not be identical but still qualify as EEOTC.

 

In case the specifications of the OTC contract in respect of lot sizes and delivery dates would be different from the on-venue contract this would not stop the OTC contract from being considered EEOTC.However, in the case of delivery dates the divergence with the exchange-traded contract is limited to one day. Different delivery locations will in ESMA's view, generally mean different economic characteristics.

 

Having given consideration to the benefits and drawbacks of aggregating contracts with different delivery arrangements, ESMA has decided not to propose amendments in this regard.

 

If, however, minor differences in delivery arrangements or other contract parameters are in future used with the apparent intent of circumventing the regime, ESMA may propose further amendments to the definition.

 

The above ESMA's approach has been finally implemented in Article 6 of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 (see box).

 

Territorial scope - the evolution of regulatory approach

 

ESMA stated in paragraph 41 of its Consultation Paper of December 2014 that it regards the geographical scope of MiFID II Article 57 as bounded within the EU and Article 5(3) of draft RTS 30 of December 2014 only envisaged aggregation of positions with other positions held by other persons within the same group "in the European Union" to determine the final net position.

 

Market participants main proposal, in response to the above interpretation, was that netting across contracts traded in other jurisdictions should be permitted in order to ensure that position limits reflect the economic reality and the real risk exposure of a participant's activity.

 

They, moreover, argued that the term 'economically equivalent' OTC contracts is not defined by Level 1 and therefore there is scope for ESMA to provide for a broader definition.

 

ISDA Response to ESMA's MiFID II/MiFIR Consultation Paper of December 19, 2014 (p. 166) observed it is not clear from the consultation paper what ESMA's views are on the territorial scope of the position limits under Article 57 of MiFID II. 

 

ISDA added, it would be important that Member States take a common approach to the scope of application of these requirements. Accordingly, ESMA should indicate how Member States should apply the requirements.

 

However, in the Final Report of 28 September 2015 ESMA sustained its initial stance that, as MiFID II does not address the possibility of the same derivative contract being listed on a third-country venue (i.e. a venue that is not a trading venue as defined by MIFID II), the geographical scope of Article 57 MiFID II is limited to the European Union.

 

Therefore, consequently, the netting and aggregation of positions on third-country venues were not included within the RTS, which had an effect that:

- the exposures in contracts traded outside of Europe would not be able to be netted,

-firms engaged much in an extra-EU trading would possibly approach the position limit sooner.

 

Subsequently, ESMA has issued the Opinion of 31 May 2017 on determining third-country trading venues for the purpose of position limits under MiFID II (ESMA70-156-112) and the relevant passage appeared in the MiFID Q&As as below.

 

 

Questions and Answers, on MiFID II and MiFIR commodity derivatives topics, 31 May 2017, ESMA70-872942901-28

 

Third country issues [Last update: 31/05/2017]

 

Question 1 [Last update: 31/05/2017]


Should economically equivalent contracts traded on a third-country venue be considered EEOTC for position limit and position reporting purposes under MiFID II?

Answer 1


Whether or not positions held in commodity derivatives contracts traded on third-country venues that are economically equivalent (EE) to contracts traded on an EU trading venue, are to be considered as EETOC for position limit and position reporting purposes under Article 58(2) of MiFID II depends on the characteristics of that third-country trading venue, as set out in ESMA Opinion 70-154-165 of 31 May 2017.

 

Market participants holding positions on third country venue contracts, that may be considered EEOTC under Article 58(2) of MiFID II and Article 6 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives (RTS 21), or considering trading such contracts, should contact their CA and make them aware of those contracts. The CA will then get in touch with the third-country venue with a request for further information. Based on the information provided, ESMA will determine whether the third-country trading venue meets the criteria set out in the ESMA Opinion. If so, the respective third-country venue will be listed in an Annex to the Opinion.


Where a third-country trading venue appears in the annex to the Opinion, EE contracts traded on that venue will not be considered EEOTC for position limit and position reporting purposes. EE contracts traded on any other third-country trading venue that does not appear in the Annex to the Opinion will be considered EEOTC.


ESMA is aware that it is important for market participants to have legal certainty as soon as possible on the treatment of their transactions in EE contracts on third-country trading venues for position limit and reporting purposes. Whilst ESMA cannot commit to any set timeline for the assessment of the information received through NCAs, all notifications will be processed as expediently as possible. 

 

 

Hence, the ESMA’s stance expressed in the Opinion of 31 May 2017 (ESMA70-156-112) was that only third-country trading venues that were evidenced in the Annex to the ESMA Opinion would not be considered EEOTC and would not be able to be netted.

 

This regulatory U-turn run counter previous ESMA's stance on the treatment of third-country trading venues for the purposes of MiFID II position limits.

 

However, it seems ESMA responded this way to the pertinent industry concerns, but the conception proposed still entailed much legal uncertainty.

 

ESMA Opinion of 15 December 2017 on determining third-country trading venues for the purpose of position limits under MiFID II (ESMA70-154-466) recalled that:

- under Article 57(4) of MiFID II position limits include also economically equivalent OTC contracts,
- Article 57(12) of MiFID II and Article 6 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/5913 (RTS 21) determine the criteria that have to be met in order for an OTC contact to be considered economically equivalent to a commodity derivative traded on a trading venue,
- Article 57 of MiFID II does not, however, provide any indication as to whether a contract in commodity derivatives traded on a third-country venue should be considered as traded OTC, and thereby whether such a contract could qualify as an economically equivalent OTC contract in accordance with Article 6 of RTS 21,
- determination of this issue is necessary to assess whether commodity derivatives traded on a third-country venue should be counted towards the EU position limit regime.

 

In the said Opinion of 15 December 2017 ESMA expressed the view that:

- the EU positions limits should only apply to contracts in commodity derivatives traded on EU trading venues and to OTC contracts economically equivalent to such contracts,
- contracts in commodity derivatives traded on a third-country facility, which is considered as a trading venue, should not be regarded as OTC and, hence, that the positions resulting from trading those contracts should not count towards the EU position limit regime.

 

ESMA also determined a set of objective criteria for third-country trading facilities that should be considered for the purposes of the MiFID II position limit regime.

 

According to the ESMA, for the purposes of Article 57 of MiFID II, and in particular paragraph (4) thereof, commodity derivatives traded on third-country trading venues that meet the criteria set out below should not be considered as OTC trades, hence are not subject to the EU positions limits regime:

a. operating a multilateral system, i.e. a system or facility in which multiple third-party buying and selling interests in financial instruments are able to interact;

b. being subject to authorisation in accordance with the legal and supervisory framework of the third-country;

c. being subject to supervision and enforcement on an ongoing basis in accordance with the legal and supervisory framework of the third-country by a competent authority that is a full signatory to the IOSCO Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding concerning Consultation and Cooperation and the Exchange of Information (MMoU).

 

In the said Opinion of 15 December 2017(ESMA70-154-466) ESMA decided that in order to ensure legal certainty and a high degree of supervisory convergence in the EU, ESMA will publish:

- a list of trading venues that meet the criteria stated above, as well as
- a list of trading venues not meeting these criteria.

 

Those lists will published in an Annex to the said Opinion and will be updated on an ongoing basis.

 

Any identification of trading venues for the purposes of the consistent application of position limits provisions set out in MiFID II proposed by the said ESMA Opinion does not in any way prejudice an equivalence assessment performed by the European Commission under MiFID II/MiFIR and, in particular any equivalence assessment of third-country trading venues for the purposes of the trading obligation for shares and derivatives, in accordance with Article 25(4)(a)of MiFID II and Article 28(4) of MiFIR.

 

In the said Opinion of 15 December 2017(ESMA70-154-466) ESMA also decided that in order to contribute to the smooth implementation of MiFIDII/MiFIR as of 3 January 2018 and to maintain a level playing field between third country trading venues, commodity derivative contracts traded on third country trading venues should not be considered economically equivalent OTC under Article 6 of RTS 21 pending the publication of the outcome of the assessment of the criteria stated above (there are more than 200 third-country trading venues under ESMA’s review).

 

 

ESMA Public Statement, Impact of no-deal Brexit on the application of MiFID II/MiFIR and the Benchmark Regulation (BMR), ESMA70-155-850, 7 October 2019

 

ESMA opinions on post-trade transparency and position limits

 

In case of a no-deal Brexit, trading venues established in the UK will, with effect from 1 November 2019, no longer be considered EU trading venues. Consequently, transactions concluded on UK trading venues would be considered OTC-transactions and subject to the post-trade transparency requirements pursuant to Articles 20 and 21 of MiFIR. Furthermore, commodity derivatives traded on UK trading venues could, subject to meeting certain conditions, be considered as EEOTC contracts for the EU27 position limit regime.
In order to avoid double-reporting and including commodity derivatives contracts traded on third-country trading venues in the position limit regime, ESMA published in 2017 two opinions on third-country trading venues in the context of MiFID II/MiFIR (ESMA70-154-467, ESMA70- 156-466). The first opinion clarified that investment firms trading on third-country trading venues meeting a set of criteria are not required to make transactions public in the EU via an approved publication arrangement (APA). The second opinion clarified that commodity derivatives contracts traded on third-country trading venues meeting a set of criteria are not considered as economically equivalent over-the-counter (EEOTC) contracts for the position limit regime.


Since the UK is currently a member of the EU, ESMA has not assessed any UK trading venue against the criteria set out in the two opinions so far. However, ESMA stands ready, based on requests from EU27 market participants, to carry out such assessments. Pending the publication of the outcome of such assessments, EU27 investment firms will not be required to make transactions public in the EU27 via an EU APA that are executed on an UK trading venue. Commodity derivatives contracts traded on those trading venues will not be considered as EEOTC contracts for the EU27 position limit regime. 

 

 

Physical holdings

 

The categories of trades not capable of being netted off in the same group will in particular be non-MiFID OTC physical trades (that are not covered by MiFID Annex I Section C and, consequently, are not under the financial regulation) and the MiFID trades in financial instruments.

 

The above shortcoming is contested by the ISDA Response to ESMA's MiFID II/MiFIR Consultation Paper of December 19, 2014, which argues that the EU position limits regime should "allow netting on a broad basis in order to accurately reflect the fact that fabricators / manufacturers look to financial institutions / trading houses for supply of physical commodities (e.g. metal fabricators) and that these financial institutions / trading houses will hedge these physically settled forwards (e.g. non-MiFID financial instruments) with on venue commodity derivatives. To the extent that physical positions remain ineligible for netting, the risk position will not be accurately reflected and the limit will be reached quicker than if netting of OTC physical positions was permitted."

 

However, the provision at issue (Article 57(1) MiFID II) refers to commodity derivatives and not to the underlying commodity.

 

According to the ESMA's interpretation (ESMA's Discussion Paper on MiFID II/MiFIR of 22 May 2014, ESMA/2014/548, p. 413), Article 57(1), MiFID II requires physical holdings to be excluded from the calculation of a person's net positions (although such positions may be relevant for utilising the hedging exemption - see below).

 

Also in the Final Report of 28 September 2015 ESMA reiterated that providing that financial firms can net off positions in commodity deriviatives against physical inventory is neither desirable nor in line with MiFID II (p. 353).

 

The chances for the U-turn of the attitude seem small since the regulator clearly and consequently argues netting of instruments against physical holdings and instruments outside of MiFID II's scope is not permitted.

 

In the Final Report of 28 September 2015 ESMA referred to the fact that in establishing the exemption for wholesale energy products under the definition of C6 financial instruments, MiFID II expressed the intent that these instruments were subject to the REMIT regime and not the MIFID II.

 

Therefore, it was once more underlined it would be inappropriate for persons to be permitted to net, or be required to aggregate, instruments that are not financial instruments under MiFID II.

 

Equally, ESMA noted that Article 57(1) of MiFID II refers to the holdings of a person in a commodity derivative and EEOTC contracts: it does not refer to holdings of an underlying commodity and therefore the netting and/or aggregation of underlying physical assets is not considered to be within the intentions of MiFID II.

 

Usability of net positions held by clearing members

 

The net positions held by clearing members are not usable for the purposes of determining the positions of their clients for the application of position limits under Article 57 of MiFID II.

 

CCPs determine net positions at the level of their clearing members, which usually encompass the long and short position of many different clients unless held in individually segregated accounts.

 

A CCP may also see positions only for those contracts for which it provides a central counterparty service and not the EEOTC positions or any held at a CCP subject to interoperability.

 

Position limits apply at the level of the individual person, and net positions held at clearing level must therefore be disaggregated (stance of ESMA presented in the MiFID II Q&As).

 

Inevitably, the positions' netting for the purposes of position limits compliance will be complicated issue and will require strict attention as the rules in that regard may not always occur as clear as market participants could expect.

 

Ban on netting hedging positions against speculative trades

 

ESMA has explained on 29 March 2017 that once a hedging exemption has been granted (details on the hedging exemption from position limits framework see below) and positions in commodity derivatives are approved by the competent authority as risk-reducing, those positions fall outside the position limit regime and mustn't be netted against positions in derivatives which are not covered by the hedge exemption.

 

Otherwise, in the ESMA's opinion, the benefit of a risk-reducing position would be double-counted, by first being excluded from the limit and then being used to offset a speculative exposure.

 

Hedging exemption

 

The key point in respect of non-financial entities is that position limits do not apply to positions held which are objectively measurable as reducing risks directly related to the commercial activity of that non-financial entity. 

 

MiFID II reporting expressly requires to differentiate such positions from any other trades. Hedging exemption is not available to financial counterparties. 

 

 

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives

 

Article 7

 

(Article 57(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU)

 

Positions qualifying as reducing risks directly related to commercial activities 

 

1. A position held by a non-financial entity in commodity derivatives traded on trading venues or in economically equivalent OTC contracts pursuant to Article 6 qualifies as reducing risks directly relating to the commercial activities of that non-financial entity where by itself, or in combination with other derivatives in accordance with paragraph 2 ('position in a portfolio of commodity derivatives'), the position meets one of the following criteria:

 

(a) it reduces the risks arising from the potential change in the value of assets, services, inputs, products, commodities or liabilities that the non-financial entity or its group owns, produces, manufactures, processes, provides, purchases, merchandises, leases, sells, or incurs or reasonably anticipates owning, producing, manufacturing, processing, providing, purchasing, merchandising, leasing, selling or incurring in the normal course of its business;

 

(b) it qualifies as a hedging contract pursuant to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adopted in accordance with Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and Council.

 

2. For the purposes of paragraph 1, a qualifying risk-reducing position taken on its own or in combination with other derivatives is one for which the non-financial entity or the person holding the position on behalf of that entity:

 

(a) describes the following in its internal policies:

(i) the types of commodity derivative contracts included in the portfolios used to reduce risks directly relating to commercial activity and their eligibility criteria;

(ii) the link between the portfolio and the risks that the portfolio is mitigating;

(iii) the measures adopted to ensure that the positions concerning those contracts serve no other purpose than covering risks directly related to the commercial activities of the non-financial entity, and that any position serving a different purpose can be clearly identified; 

 

(b) is able to provide a sufficiently disaggregated view of the portfolios in terms of class of commodity derivative, underlying commodity, time horizon and any other relevant factors.

 

Recital 7

 

 

In order to establish which positions in commodity derivatives are objectively measurable as reducing risks directly relating to commercial activity, certain criteria should be provided, including the use of the accounting definition of a hedging contract based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) rules. That accounting definition should be also available to non-financial entities even though they do not apply IFRS rules at an entity level.

 

Recital 8


Additionally, non-financial entities should be able to use risk management techniques to mitigate their overall risks arising from their commercial activity or that of their group, including risks arising from several geographic markets, several products, time horizons or entities ('macro or portfolio hedging'). When a non-financial entity uses macro or portfolio hedging, it may not be able to establish a one-to-one link between a specific position in a commodity derivative and a specific risk arising from the commercial activity that the commodity derivative is intended to hedge. A non-financial entity may also use a non-equivalent commodity derivative to hedge a specific risk arising from commercial activity where an identical commodity derivative is not available or where a more closely correlated commodity derivative does not have sufficient liquidity ('proxy hedging'). In such cases, risk management policies and systems should be able to prevent non-hedging transactions from being categorised as hedging and should be able to provide for a sufficiently disaggregate view of the hedging portfolio so that speculative components are identified and counted towards the position limits. Positions should not qualify as reducing risks related to commercial activity solely on the grounds that they have been included as part of a risk-reducing portfolio on an overall basis.

 

Recital 9


A risk may evolve over time and, in order to adapt to the evolution of the risk, commodity derivatives initially executed for reducing risk related to commercial activity, may have to be offset through the use of additional commodity derivative contracts that close out those commodity derivative contracts that have become unrelated to the commercial risk. Additionally, the evolution of a risk that has been addressed by the entering into of a position in a commodity derivative for the purpose of reducing risk should not subsequently give rise to the re-evaluation of that position as not being a privileged transaction ab initio.

 

 

Non-financial entities (NFE)

 

As MiFID II does not provide a definition of what a "non-financial entity" is, ESMA has clarified that it is the inverse of a "financial counterparty" as defined under EMIR.

 

In other words, a non-financial entity for the purposes of the position limits regime is the same as a non-financial counterparty under EMIR (ESMA's Final Report of 28 September 2015, p. 352).

 

According to Article 2(1) of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 'non-financial entity' means a natural or legal person other than:

(a) an investment firm authorised in accordance with Directive 2014/65/EC,
(b) a credit institution authorised in accordance with Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council,
(c) an insurance undertaking authorised in accordance with Directive 73/239/EEC,
(d) an assurance undertaking authorised in accordance with Directive 2002/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council,
(e) a reinsurance undertaking authorised in accordance with Directive 2005/68/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council,

(f) a UCITS and, where relevant, its management company, authorised in accordance with Directive 2009/65/EC8 of the European Parliament and of the Council,

(g) an institution for occupational retirement provision within the meaning of Article 6(a) of Directive 2003/41/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council,
(h) an alternative investment fund managed by AIFMs authorised or registered in accordance with Directive 2011/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council,
(i) a CCP authorised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council,
(j) a central securities depository authorised in accordance with Regulation EU No 909/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

 

A third-country entity is a non-financial entity if it would not require authorisation under any of the aforementioned legislation if it was based in the Union and subject to Union law.

 

"Positions objectively measurable as reducing risks directly related to the commercial activity"

 

The category of "positions objectively measurable as reducing risks directly related to the commercial activity" used in the Commission Delegated Regulation applicable to position limits significantly resembles EMIR Regulation, and, Article 10(4)(a) of EMIR, analogously, required ESMA to develop draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) based on a similar Level 1 text.

 

EMIR, however, includes reference to the "treasury financing activity", which is absent in the MiFID II position limits wording.

 

This discrepancy can be explained by the fact, the MiFID II position limits framework is restricted to commodity derivatives, and these instruments are not commonly used for the purpose of treasury financing.

 

The standard developed for the purpose of EMIR states that a derivative contract is objectively measurable as reducing risks directly relating to the commercial activity when, by itself or in combination with other derivative contracts it meets one of the following criteria:

1) it covers the risks arising from the potential change in the value of assets, services, inputs, products, commodities or liabilities that the non-financial counterparty or its group owns, produces, manufactures, processes, provides, purchases, merchandises, leases, sells or incurs or reasonably anticipates owning, producing, manufacturing, processing, providing, purchasing, merchandising, leasing, selling or incurring in the normal course of its business;

2) it covers the risks arising from the potential indirect impact on the value of assets, services, inputs, products, commodities or liabilities referred to in point (1), resulting from fluctuation of interest rates, inflation rates, foreign exchange rates or credit risk;

3) it qualifies as a hedging contract pursuant to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), adopted in accordance with Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

 

ESMA believes that the interpretation and consequent application of risk-reducing activity through position limits should be consistent (with the reservation that EMIR addressed this question only in relation to OTC trades) as far as possible with the RTS produced under EMIR.

 

Therefore, it was initially assumed, the EMIR-applicable interpretation which contracts are objectively measurable as reducing risks directly relating to the commercial activity can be applied by analogy.

 

Draft RTS of 28 September 2015 adopted the following assumptions with respect to hedging exemption for position limits: 

1. Given the language of the hedging exemption for position limits is the same as that under Article 10(3) of EMIR, with the exception that it applies to commercial activities only and not to treasury activities, the EMIR definition for hedging is used as the basis of the position limits hedging definition. The said hedging definition under EMIR has been amended for position limit purposes to the extent that it also applies to derivatives traded on trading venues. Elements, which refer to treasury activities, have been removed.

2. Position limits structuring for hedging replicates arrangements in the RTS for the hedging exemption under the MiFID II ancillary activity exemption, the use of the clarification under the EMIR Q&A (question 10) has also been retained (with the spirit of this guidance included in a recital).

 

The regulators' stance behind is it is reasonable to require a firm to demonstrate some linkage between transactions and its hedging position. It is, however, clearly explained by ESMA it does still permit portfolio hedging (ESMA's Final Report of 28 September 2015, p. 348).

 

The above conceptions have been subsequently codified in Article 7 of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 (see box).

 

To conclude this thread, a broader reflection comes to mind. that from the systemic point of view, consistent perception of the hedging criterion across the MiFID II/MiFIR and EMIR legal frameworks can't be overestimated as any discrepancies would have significant potential to misguide the market and increase compliance costs. Hence, ESMA's efforts to exploit interconnections between these legal frameworks are fully reasonable.

 

Hedging exemption procedure

 

It needs to be stressed the hedging exemption does not operate automatically but requires a notification from the non-financial counterparty and regulatory approval.

 

The specific procedure by which non-financial entities that are holding positions for the purpose of risk-reduction may be exempted from the position limits regime (including how the relevant competent authority will approve such applications) is the domain of the MiFID II level 2 legislation.

 

The task of drafting in that regard was entrusted to ESMA by Article 57(12)(f) of MiFID II, ESMA was also required to specify how the relevant competent authorities should proceed to approve such applications.

 

 

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives

 

Article 8

(Article 57(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU)

Application for the exemption from position limits

 

1. A non-financial entity holding a qualifying position in a commodity derivative shall apply for the exemption referred to in the second subparagraph of paragraph 1 of Article 57 of Directive 2014/65/EU to the competent authority which sets the position limit for that commodity derivative.

 

2. The person referred to in paragraph 1 shall submit to the competent authority the following information which demonstrates how the position reduces risks directly relating to the non-financial entity's commercial activity:

 

(a) a description of the nature and value of the non-financial entity's commercial activities in the commodity to which the commodity derivative for which an exemption is sought is relevant;

 

(b) a description of the nature and value of the non-financial entity's activities in the trading of and positions held in the relevant commodity derivatives traded on trading venues and in their economically equivalent OTC contracts;

 

(c) a description of the nature and size of the exposures and risks in the commodity which the non-financial entity has or expects to have as a result of its commercial activities and which are or would be mitigated by the use of commodity derivatives;

 

(d) an explanation of how the non-financial entity's use of commodity derivatives directly reduces its exposure and risks in its commercial activities.

 

3. The competent authority shall approve or reject the application within 21 calendar days after it has received the application and shall notify the non-financial entity of its approval or rejection of the exemption.

 

4. The non-financial entity shall notify the competent authority if there is a significant change to the nature or value of the non-financial entity's commercial activities or its trading activities in commodity derivatives and the change is relevant to the information set out in point (b) of paragraph 2 and shall submit a new application for the exemption if it intends to continue to use it.

 

Recital 10

 

Non-financial entities should be able to apply for the exemption in relation to hedging of commercial activities before entering into a position. The application should give the competent authority a clear and concise overview of the commercial activities of the non-financial entity in respect of an underlying commodity, the associated risks and how commodity derivatives are utilised to mitigate those risks. Position limits apply at all times and should the exemption ultimately not be granted by the competent authority, the non-financial entity should reduce any position in excess of a limit accordingly and may face supervisory measures in respect of a breach of a limit. Non-financial entities should re-assess their activities periodically to ensure that the continued application of the exemption is justified. 

 

 

In the above-mentioned Discussion Paper of 22 May 2014 the following remarks have been made when it comes to the potential scope of the said requirements:

1. MiFID II itself does not define to whom the notification of exemption should be made;

2. Notification is an exemption from the position limits regime in relation to holdings in a specific contract, ESMA has considered that this is the basis for the notification;

3. Therefore ESMA proposed that, for both persons that are incorporated in an EU Member State and persons that are incorporated in a third country, the notification should be made to the competent financial authority of the relevant trading venue (as a person may be eligible for an exemption in relation to certain contracts, i.e. related to its commercial activities, and not eligible for an exemption in relation to other, speculative, activities);

4. ESMA proposed a similar procedure to that defined under EMIR for the notification of exemptions from the EMIR clearing obligation;

5. As regards the timing for applications for the use of, and the subsequent approval of, the exemption, submissions would not have to be made prior to entering into a position in the relevant contracts, but, in order to avoid the use of position management powers, a person should ensure that a relevant exemption has been obtained before approaching the limits set for the size of a position;

6. Submissions most probably will be made online to the relevant competent authority by means of an electronic portal.

 

In the above Consultation Paper, ESMA underlined that the intention of MiFID II is that the exemption is available only in respect of specific positions: it is not a universal exemption for certain types of persons, which exempts them from position limits for all activities undertaken in all commodity derivative contracts, regardless of whether they are risk-reducing or speculative.

 

In the Final Report of 28 September 2015 ESMA supplemented the above considerations with the conclusion that a person should apply for an exemption from a position limit for risk reducing positions to the competent authority of the trading venue for that contract. The competent authority may require the person to demonstrate that a specific position is risk reducing and may withdraw the exemption for that position if insufficient information is provided.

 

In terms of timelines, ESMA initially proposed that each competent authority would have up to 30 calendar days to consider the notification and decide whether to approve it, after which a reply will be given. However, after the stakeholders' opinions ESMA revised its approach and this timeline has been shortened from 30 to 21 calendar days.

 

Where a competent authority expects to oppose the use of the exemption, it may contact the person and give a short period of time in order to provide any relevant additional information before a final decision is made.

 

A number of market participants suggested replacing the proposed ex ante procedure with an ex post one, which would allow immediate trading. Others proposed an ex ante approval as a general rule but that nevertheless it should be possible for a firm to seek an ex post approval.

 

This was the case for example for EFET, Eurelectric, EUROPEX and other organisations, which observed in the aforementioned document of 4 September 2015:

 

"We believe the annual hedging exemption should be complemented with a mechanism for non-financial entities to seek position limit exemptions on an ex-post basis – for example to react to unexpected events such as outages at physical infrastructure. This mechanism should require prompt assessments by national competent authorities to minimise disruption and prevent disorderly trading."

 

However, ESMA commented upon this issue that replacing the proposed ex ante procedure with an ex post model would fall outside the legal powers available to ESMA in the process of the MiFID II implementation. 

 

The UK FCA explained in more detail the practical mechanics of the exemption from position limits. According to the FCA, the exemption will be an uncapped exemption based on an assessment of the application. 

 

The FCA will monitor reported positions against the information provided in the application form. If there is a significant change in the nature or value of the non-financial entity’s commercial or trading activities, in the circumstances described in Article 8(4) of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016, it is required that the entity should submit a new application.

 

Moreover, FCA stressed that:

- the position limit exemption applies to the whole position, regardless of when particular positions were entered into,

- the approval of a position limit exemption does not change the position reporting which is required under Article 58 of MiFID II and the respective regulation in any way,

- firms should not apply any exemption granted in the reporting of the positions of a client.

 

Important consideration is that position limit exemptions granted will not be listed publicly. The approval of a position limit exemption is a matter between the national competent authority and the applicant. This entails that firms are not required to monitor the position limit compliance of their clients, compliance with position limits is the sole responsibility of the position holder. So there is no expectation that a firm (such as a broker) should know, or need to know, the exemptions granted to any individual person.

 

On 7 July 2017 ESMA explained in the form of Questions and Answers on MiFID II and MiFIR commodity derivatives topics (ESMA70-872942901-28) that an application to the relevant national competent authority of a trading venue for a position limit exemption is necessary for a Non-Financial Entity (NFE) only when it expects to be in excess of the position limit for a given commodity derivative.

 

ESMA, moreover, underlined, that there is no requirement under MIFID II to apply for a position limit exemption if an NFE does not expect to need one for its normal level of activities.

 

This regulatory clarification may occur extremely important for non-financial counterparties, as it means that most of them, having limited volume of activity, are in practice freed from bureaucratic burdens involved with the respective administrative procedures.

 

It is useful to add that in the respective Questions and Answers ESMA referred also to the issue of the availability of the hedging exemption to the non-EU entities with positions above the limits.

 

The regulator's stance is non-financial entity from outside the European Union may apply for an exemption in the same manner as an EU firm would.

 

The UK FCA made also clear the issue that have been sometimes misunderstood: FCA underlined that the risk-reducing flag in position reporting refers to the purpose for which the position is held, and not whether or not a position limit exemption has been approved for that person.

 

In September 2017 FCA added an important clarification that non-financial entity cannot apply for an exemption for a position it holds on behalf of another entity for legal or operational reasons, including positions it holds on behalf of a group-entity (Financial Conduct Authority, Commodity position limits exemption application guide, September 2017, p. 4, 7).

Only a non-financial entity on whose behalf such positions are held, may apply for an exemption for those positions.

In other words, the NFE can only apply for those positions where it is the beneficial owner.

 

Moreover, FCA once more underlined that the NFEs should apply for an exemption in respect of a limit established by another NCA, directly to that NCA in the manner it prescribes.

 

As part of the application form an applicant that is a legal entity should provide an LEI.

 

If an entity no longer qualifies as an NFE, it should cancel any existing exemptions it has been granted by submitting a cancellation form.

 

 

Application form for position limits exemption

according to Financial Conduct Authority, Commodity position limits exemption application guide, September 2017

 

2.1 Please provide the details of the commodity derivative contracts which you wish to seek an exemption or cancellation for in the table below.

 

This question is mandatory and you must complete the table with the following information:

 

- Trading venue name.


- Trading venue MIC code – if the applicant trades only EEOTC, the equivalent trading venue MIC code to which the EEOTC relates needs to be provided.


- VPC – if the applicant trades only EEOTC products, the applicant is required to provide the corresponding trading venue VPC.


- Commodity derivative name.


- Spot month contract total risk-reducing position: quantity should be specifed in the units traded, i.e. xxxxlots.


- Other months’ contract: total risk-reducing position quantity aggregated over the period covered and specifed in the units traded i.e. xxxx lots.


- Units.


- If other units (please specify).

 

For the position value for the ‘other months’ contract, positions with different maturities for within the other months’ period should be netted. Persons must determine their net risk-reducing position for the other months’ contract for the relevant commodity derivative. For same commodity contracts, firms should specify both contracts for which an exemption is required if traded in the UK.

 

The total size of the positions provided in the spot month contract: total risk-reducing position and other months contract: total risk-reducing position should be an aggregation of the figures for each same commodity derivative contract. Make this clear in the application form.

 

Provide a description of the exposures and risks in section 2.5.

 

2.2 Please provide a description of the nature and value of your commercial activity in the commodity underlying this commodity derivative. Please specify the commodity derivative alongside the description.

 

This field is mandatory. You must describe the nature and value of the NFE’s commercial activity in the commodity relevant to the commodity derivative you are seeking an exemption for. The value of commercial activity should be provided in relation to the physical business and expressed in lots/units/other units. Value is the unit size quantity of your commercial activity.Base the values you provide in these sections on commercial activities over the period covered by the last set of financial statements, as opposed to the projected figures, unless the entity has not traded for more than 12 months or there is a material change to a business activity. If your submission is more than 130,000 characters long, you can upload additional information in 2.6.2.3

 

2.3 How was the value of your commercial activity, as described in 2.2 calculated? Please specify the commodity derivative alongside the description.

 

Describe how the value of the commercial activity in the relevant commodity derivative has been calculated.

 

2.4 What is the nature and value of your activity in the trading of and positions held in this commodity derivative? This should include activity on trading venues and in any EEOTC. Please specify the commodity derivative alongside the description.

 

Describe the nature and value of the trading activity in this commodity derivative.

 

Break down the values into trading volumes for the spot month contract and for the other months’ contract in a particular commodity derivative.

 

Please note that we expect the values you provide to be based on trading volumes over the period covered by the last set of financial statements, as opposed to expected figures, unless the entity has not traded for more than 12 months or there is a material change to a business activity.

 

2.5 Please provide a description of the nature and size of the exposures and risks in the relevant commodity which you have or expect to have as a result of your commercial activities or trading activities, and which are or would be mitigated by the use of commodity derivatives. The description should include an explanation of how your use of the commodity derivative directly reduces your exposures and risks in your commercial activities. Please specify the commodity derivative alongside the description.

 

Describe the nature and size of the exposures and risks as a result of the commercial activities in the relevant commodity. Please specify how using the commodity derivative(s) qualifies as reducing risks directly relating to its commercial activities. The explanation must cover the elements of Article 7 RTS 21.

 

Explain why a particular commodity derivative is relevant to your commercial business, particularly where it may appear unrelated.

 

2.6 Please provide supporting evidence you wish to be considered as part of this application and highlight relevant sections.

 

You do not have to provide supporting evidence. But if it could help us assess your application, you may provide supporting evidence, which could include:

 

- Trading data.


- Financial statements.


- Internal policies describing the types of commodity derivative contracts included in the portfolios used to reduce risks directly relating to commercial activity and their eligibility criteria; the link between the portfolio and the risks the portfolio is mitigating.


- Information used to apply for the ancillary activities exemption tests under RTS20.


- Information used for EMIR reporting.

 

  

Notice period

 

ESMA asked stakeholders for views regarding transitioning into new position limits, specifically, what period a position limit should be fixed for a specific contract (except in exceptional cases) and how much notice of subsequent adjustments to a position limit would respondents consider appropriate.

 

All respondents agreed with ESMA's proposal that position limits should be set for a fixed period rather and that amending them on a real time basis is not optimal.

 

Opinions varied, however, regarding the length of such a fixed period, depending on the type of commodity targeted or on the periodicity of the publication of the deliverable supply statistics. Approximately half of respondents proposed an initial period of two years followed by annual reviews.

 

Most of the respondents considered it important that there should be a sufficiently long notification period of changes to existing position limits to minimise potential market disruption. A majority supported a 3 to 6 month notice period for new limits although some respondents considered a shorter period would be manageable.

 

Respondents also noted that the notification period is strongly linked to a number of factors including: frequency of the periodic review, itself linked to the type of commodity and the access of deliverable supply data; the grandfathering of open positions prior to the revision; and, the level of the limits and of their revisions.

 

Scheme flexibility

 

Position limits will be set at national levels, however, the common methodology is the matter of the MiFID II secondary legislation.

 

Moreover, ESMA has been also assigned with the task of ensuring that a single position limit effectively applies to the same contract irrespective of where it is traded.

The latter point, however, leads to concerns whether regulatory arbitrage between EU Member States in setting position thresholds will be possible.

Rigorous, and, on the other hand, more loose national caps on positions exhibit a potential to attract or deter investors in particular markets.  

 

The question may arise whether business is capable in any way to strategically prepare for the functioning of position limits architecture. 

It would rather be difficult since MiFID II exibits in that regard an extreme flexibility - national competent authorities possess powers to review position limits whenever there is "a significant change in deliverable supply or open interest or any other significant change in the market".

 

Apart from that, it should be noted supervisory powers of national financial authorities under MiFID II include the competence to request any person "to take steps to reduce the size of the position or exposure". Consequently, business plans and strategies as well as legal documentation of transactions must take account of the above - possibly unexpected - regulatory interventions.

 

To mitigate some of the above risks MiFIID II foresees the procedure for establishing the trading venue where the largest volume of trading takes place and the significant volumes.

 

Where the same contracts are traded in different Member States, there is a need to assign one competent authority to set a limit which applies in all relevant countries. This assignment is made on the basis of the country in which the trading venue with the largest average daily volume is located. Where the "same" commodity derivative is traded in significant volume on two or more trading venues in two or more Member States, the competent authority of the trading venue with the largest volume will be the central competent authority.

 

ESMA was required under Article 57(12)(d) to define what is a significant volume of trading in the same commodity derivative.

 

For clarity, ESMA noted that this will only be required where the same commodity derivative is traded on two or more trading venues within the European Union.

 

 

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives

 

Article 5(2)

 

A commodity derivative shall be considered to be traded in a significant volume on a trading venue when the trading in the commodity derivative on that trading venue over a consecutive three month period:


(a) exceeds an average daily open interest of 10,000 lots in the spot and other months' combined; or


(b) in the case of commodity derivatives defined under point (c) of Article 4(1)(44) of Directive 2014/65/EU, when the number of units traded multiplied by the price exceeds an average daily amount of 1 million EUR.


3. The trading venue where the largest volume of trading in the same commodity derivative takes place shall be the trading venue that over one year has:


(a) the largest average daily open interest; or


(b) in the case of commodity derivatives defined under point (c) of Article 4(1)(44) of Directive 2014/65/EU, the highest average daily amount.

 

 

According to ESMA's initial proposal, where the same commodity derivative contract is traded on two or more trading venues within the European Union, the determination of a central competent authority would be required whenever there were at least three lots of open interest in the same commodity derivative contract simultaneously traded on more than one trading venue. A majority of the respondents agreed with ESMA's proposal on this matter, recognising the importance of establishing a framework in which avoiding position limits regime is not possible. Other considered the limit too low.

 

Although ESMA shared the view that the determination of the central competent authority is needed as an important piece of the regulatory regime, it also acknowledged that the regime entails inherent cost and would only be efficient beyond a higher significance threshold. Therefore, ESMA aligned the threshold for significant volumes with the threshold for new and illiquid contracts, thus adopting a consistent approach to the threshold.

 

Therefore ESMA considered a commodity derivative to be traded in significant volume, when:

i. it has an average daily open interest which is above 10,000 lots in the spot and other months' combined on a trading venue over a consecutive three month period; or

ii. in the case of securitised commodity derivatives defined under point (c) of Article 4(1)(44), when the number of units traded multiplied by the price exceeds an average daily amount of €1,000,000.

 

Largest volume is calculated over a period of one year.

 

ESMA noted that trading venues that list the same commodity derivative contract must put in place appropriate communication and liaison arrangements to ensure that the volumes of open interest are known at all times to the relevant competent authorities.

 

The above considerations have taken the legislative form in the Article 5(2) of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/591 of 1 December 2016 (see box).

 

Obligations of investment firms acting as general clearing members as regards position limits

 

Investment firms acting as general clearing members are required:

- to set out and to communicate to its clearing clients appropriate trading and position limits to mitigate and manage its own counterparty, liquidity, operational and other risks,

- to monitor its clearing clients' positions against position limits as close to real-time as possible,
- to have appropriate pre-trade and post-trade procedures for managing the risk of breaches of the position limits (by way of appropriate margining practice or other appropriate means),

- to document in writing the procedures referred to above and to record whether the clearing clients comply with those procedures.

 

The legal base for the said requirements is Article 26 of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/589 of 19 July 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying the organisational requirements of investment firms engaged in algorithmic trading.

 

Trading venues' controls as a separate, but interlinked framework

 

Article 57(8) MiFID II requires investment firms and market operators operating trading venues to apply position management controls. ESMA's view is that this regime will operate in tandem with position limits set by the national financial regulatory authorities described above.

 

ESMA's Discussion Paper on MiFID II/MiFIR of 22 May 2014 (ESMA/2014/548) underlines that "these controls are a mandatory part of the new control framework and will necessarily interact closely with the ESMA position limits methodology and the relevant competent authority's position limits regime. Any position limits set by a trading venue using its position management powers will of necessity be of an equal or lesser size than that established by the relevant competent authority".

 

 

Questions and Answers on MiFID II and MiFIR commodity derivatives topics, ESMA70-872942901-28

 

Position limits

 

Question 1 [Last update: 19/12/2016]


Are position limits applicable only at the end of each trading day or also throughout the trading day?


Answer 1


Position limits are applicable at all times. This is particularly relevant when a commodity derivative is traded OTC outside the normal trading hours of a trading venue.


Question 2 [Last update: 31/05/2017 - outdated]


 

What is the definition of lot for energy products?


Answer 2


In derivatives markets where the underlying asset is electricity, natural gas (gas) or liquefied natural gas (LNG) and there is no concept of a standardised lot as a unit of trading the following approach should be used:


Delivery period: the period over which the contract is delivered (physically or by cash settlement vs spot prices). These periods may be annual (calendar), quarterly, monthly, weekly (whole week, labour week and weekend) or daily. For gas and LNG derivative contracts the units of time for delivery are typically days.


Unit of registration: Generally, it is 1 Megawatt MW, but there are ISINs whose unit of registration is a multiple or a proportion of MW (e.g. 0.1 MW)


Product type: For most power derivatives the underlying is delivered as a fixed quantity per hour during a defined number of hours (“relevant hours”) in the relevant days of the delivery period. There are two main product types for power derivatives:

- Base Load: Relevant hours are 24 per day, as the underlying asset is delivered from the first hour of the day (0:00 to 00:59 hours) until the last hour of the day (23:00 to 23:59 hours) of relevant days included in the delivery period.


- Peak Load: Relevant hours are different in different jurisdictions and are usually specified as part of the day (for example, 12 hours where an underlying asset is delivered from the ninth hour of the day (08:00:00 to 08:59:00 hours) until the twentieth hour of the day (19:00 to 19:59 hours) of every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (relevant days) included in the delivery period).


Nominal/multiplier of a contract: the implicit multiplication of the deliverable underlying in the contract. For power contracts, it is in MWh.


For Power derivatives
Nominal = Unit of registration * number of relevant days (in delivery period) * relevant
hours (per day)
For Gas and LNG derivatives

 

Nominal = Unit of registration * number of relevant days (in delivery period)


Where a lot is not defined for energy contracts, according to Article 9 of RTS 21, a lot should be the minimum quantity tradable of that commodity derivative, calculated as nominal * minimum number of contracts to be included in a trade.


For gas and LNG, a lot will be 1 MWh, except for gas derivatives where the number of contracts traded as a unit is above this size.


If the minimum amount tradable were one daily contract of 1 MW, for example, the lot size would be 24 MWh for typical base load contracts or 12 MWh for peak load contracts, as the typical timeframe of peak hours corresponds to 12 per relevant day.

 

Whereas, if the minimum amount tradable is not a daily, but a monthly contract, a lot corresponds to the MWh that are to be delivered according to that contract (e.g. 720 MWh for base load contracts, considering a month composed of 30 days).

 

Question 2 [Last update: 13/11/2017]

 

What is the definition of a lot for the application of Article 15(1)(a) and (b) (New and illiquid contracts) of RTS 21 to those commodity derivatives for which a lot, as defined in the contract specification by the trading venue, does not represent a standard quantity of the underlying across all maturities/delivery periods for that commodity derivative?

 

Answer 2

 

In some derivative markets (mainly related to power or gas), trading venues offer trading in derivative contracts that refer to an identical underlying but have a variety of delivery periods, e.g. annual (calendar), quarterly, monthly, weekly (whole week, working day week and weekend) or daily.

 

For these contracts a lot or unit of trading, as defined in the contract specification by the trading venue, does not necessarily represent a standard quantity of underlying across all maturities/delivery periods, i.e. the lot size for a daily contract is different from that for a monthly contract as the lot size usually depends on the number of relevant days and/or hours in the delivery period. For baseload power derivatives, this is illustrated by the following table:

 

 

 Delivery period

 Unit of trading (1 Lot = 1MW) 

 Quantity of underlying commodity (baseload)

 Lot size 

 1 day

 1 MW

 24 MWh

 24 h

 1 week – 7 days 

 1 MW

 168 MWh

 168 h

 1 month – 30 days 

 1 MW

 720 MWh

 720 h

 

 

Since there is not an unambiguous equivalence between a lot and an absolute quantity of underlying commodity, it is necessary to define a reference period and use the associated lot size to determine the liquidity of a contract under Article 15(1)(a) and (b) of RTS 21 and to set position limits under Article 15(1)(a) of RTS 21.

 

As the trading activity in European power and gas derivative markets is generally concentrated in monthly contracts, the period of the monthly contract should be used as the reference period. The associated lot size should be calculated by using the relevant days and/or hours as specified by the trading venue for that particular contract type.

 

Example:

 

Lot size calculation for a monthly base load and a monthly peak load power derivative contract to determine liquidity and set position limits for illiquid contracts:

 

Base load lot size = 30 days * 24 hours/day = 720 h, 10,000 lots are equivalent to 7.2 TWh,

 

Peak load lot size: 22 days * 12 hours/day = 264 h, 10,000 lots are equivalent to 2.64 TWh.

 

Question 3 [Last update: 19/12/2016]


 

What is a lot in the case of Economically Equivalent OTC contracts (EEOTC)?


Answer 3


A significant number of OTC contracts are specified by reference to a quantity of the underlying commodity and not the standardised lot sizes of an exchange-traded derivative. Where an OTC contract is not defined in standardised lots the size of the contract should be calculated as a multiple of the standard unit of trading used by the trading venue for the commodity derivative to which the OTC contract is equivalent.

 

Question 4 [Last update: 19/12/2016]


 

Should positions with different maturities for other months' limits be netted?


Answer 4


Yes. Persons must determine their net position for each commodity derivative for the other months' limit, as indicated in Article 3(4) of RTS 21.

 

They should sum (or net, as appropriate) all individual positions across the curve excluding those positions in the spot month for that commodity derivative.

 

Question 5 [Last update: 19/12/2016]

 


How should non-EU entities with positions above the limits be treated? Do they have access to exemptions, and if so, when and how do they apply to the relevant NCA?

 

Answer 5

 

A non-financial entity from outside the EU (European Union) may apply for an exemption in the same manner as an EU firm would. The rules and procedures are laid down in RTS 21.

 

Question 6 [Last update: 19/12/2016]


 

How do limits apply to long and short positions?

 

Answer 6

 

Position limits apply to net positions regardless of whether the net position is long or short. When calculating their positions, a person needs to aggregate their long and short holdings in spot contracts towards the spot month limit. They separately need to aggregate all their long and short positions for all other months towards the other months' limit.

 

Question 7 [Last update: 19/12/2016]

 


Are securitised derivatives considered to be commodity derivatives under MiFID II? How does ESMA differentiate between ETCs and securitised derivatives?

 

Answer 7

 

"Securitised derivatives" are transferable securities whose value is based upon underlying assets. However, neither MiFID I (incl. level 2 thereof), nor MiFID II/MiFIR contain a specific definition of these instruments.


Where the underlying asset of securitised derivatives is one or more commodities, these instruments are caught by the definition of "transferable securities" in Article 4(1)(44)(c) of MIFID II and are commodity derivatives under Article 2(1)(30) of MiFIR.


Exchange traded commodities (ETCs) are debt instruments which are within the scope of Article 4(1)(44)(b) of MiFID II and are classified as such in RTS 2. Therefore, they are outside the definition of commodity derivatives in Article 2(1)(30) of MiFIR and the position limits regime does not apply to them.


ESMA is aware that market practices in differentiating between ETCs and securitised derivatives are neither clear nor uniform and presents the following guidance to allow for a correct classification of instruments in practice.


In RTS 2 ETCs are described as debt instruments issued against a direct investment by the issuer in commodities or commodity derivative contracts. The price of an ETC is directly or indirectly linked to the performance of the underlying. An ETC passively tracks the performance of the commodity or the commodity indices to which it refers.


In addition, ESMA considers that ETCs typically have the following features:
- a primary market exists which is accessible only to authorised market participants per- mitting the creation and redemption of securities on a daily basis at the price set by the issuer;
- they are not UCITS and therefore unlike an ETF can have an exposure profile not in compliance with the UCITS diversification requirements;
- they are traded on- and off-venue in significant volumes;
- the price is aligned, or multiplied by a fixed leverage of the price of the underlying 
commodity;
- a management fee is charged by the issuer;
- they may be issued by non-banking institutions;
- they do not have an expiry date;
- they may have a strict regime of capital segregation, usually through the use of special purpose vehicles;
- they are often aimed at professional investors.

 

In comparison, the term 'securitised derivatives' describes a much wider set of financial instruments that can have a large variety of features among them the following typical features:
- they can have commodities as underlying but also many financial instruments or they can be linked to strategies, indices or baskets of instruments;
- they can passively track the performance of the underlying but they can typically also apply leverage, can have an option structure or also have a lower risk profile than the underlying by, for example, offering capital protection;
- they are traded on venue or OTC by the issuer directly or via intermediaries;
- the issuers' costs and compensation are factored into their price;
- they have an expiration date;
- they provide an issuer credit risk exposure;
- they are often aimed at retail clients.


Question 8 [Last update: 19/12/2016]


 

Are the net positions held by clearing members usable for the purposes of determining the positions of their clients for the application of position limits under Article 57?


Answer 8 


 

No. Central counterparties determine net positions at the level of their clearing members, which usually encompass the long and short position of many different clients unless held in individually segregated accounts. A CCP may also see positions only for those contracts for which it provides a central counterparty service and not the EEOTC positions or any held at a CCP subject to interoperability. Position limits apply at the level of the individual person, and net positions held at clearing level must therefore be disaggregated. 


 

Question 9 [Last update: 13/11/2017]

 

Will there be a different position limit for options and futures? If so, how should options be converted into futures for the application of position limits?

 

Answer 9

 

No, there will be no separate limits for futures and options on the same commodity derivative. Futures and options are fungible in terms of their economic effect at expiry if an option expires in the money with the respective future expiring at the same time. During the life of an option contract, the probability of the option expiring in the money is reflected in its delta value.

 

Option positions should therefore be converted into positions in their respective future contracts on the basis of the current delta to arrive at a delta equivalent futures position. Long delta equivalent positions on calls and short delta equivalent positions on puts should be added to positions on futures. Short delta equivalent positions on calls and long delta equivalent positions on puts should be subtracted from positions on futures.

 

If available, position holders should use the delta value published by the trading venue or the CCP to report their positions in options. In the absence of a published delta value, position holders may use their own calculation. Position holders should be able to demonstrate, on demand, to the NCA responsible for the application of the position limit that their calculations correctly reflect the value of the option.

 

To determine which contracts are liquid under Article15 of RTS 21 and also to establish position limits based on the quantity of open interest, the open interest of futures plus the delta-adjusted open interest of options should be used, where there is a future and/or option traded on the commodity derivative and the relevant data are available. This is consistent with the reporting of positions made under Article 58 of RTS 21.

 

Question 10

 

How is the position limits regime applied to the various underlyings listed in Annex I, Section C(10) of MIFID II?

 

Answer 10 - [Last update: 13/11/2017] outdated

 

Section C(10) of Annex I of MIFID II covers a number of different types of commodity derivatives. For these instruments the following approaches should be taken:

 

Position limits should be applied to freight rate derivatives (wet and dry freight) based on the open interest both in the spot month and in the other months.

 

Position limits should be applied to derivative contracts relating to indices if the underlying index is materially based on commodity underlyings as defined in Article 2 No. 6 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565 of 25 April 2016. ESMA considers that the underlying index is materially based on commodities if such commodities have a weighting of more than 50% in the composition of the underlying index. The spot and the other months’ limits should be based on open interest only, in accordance with Article 13(1) of RTS 21, as no single measurable deliverable supply can be determined for the commodities contained within the index.

 

A commodity derivative contract in the legal form of a “spread” or “diff” contract is a contract that is cash-settled and whose value is determined by the difference between two reference commodities which may vary in type, grade, location, time of delivery, or other features. Whilst having multiple commodity values underlying it, the commodity derivative is available on a trading venue as a single tradable financial instrument. A spread contract is different to a spread trading strategy, when two or more commodity derivative contracts may be traded together in order to achieve a certain economic effect. Such a strategy may be executed by a single action in a venue’s trading systems, but it remains composed of separate and legally distinct commodity derivatives which are executed as trades simultaneously.

As a spread contract has no single commodity at a specific place or time as the underlying, it is not possible to link it to a single physical deliverable supply against a contractual obligation to physically settle the trade. It is for this reason all spread contracts are cash-settled and not physically settled.

Therefore, spread contracts should be treated for the application of the ESMA methodology in the same manner as C10 commodity derivatives which do not have a physical underlying, such as weather derivatives. The open interest figure for the commodity derivative itself should be used as the baseline for both the Spot Month limit and the Other Months’ limit.

 

For other derivatives listed in Section C10 of Annex I of MiFID II and in Article 8 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565 of 25 April 2016, ESMA is not expecting the setting of any position limits as the underlyings of such derivatives are not considered to be commodities as defined in Article 2 No. 6 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565 of 25 April 2016.

 

Answer 10 [Last update: 27/03/2018]


Section C(10) of Annex I of MIFID II covers a number of different types of commodity derivatives. For these instruments the following approaches should be taken:


Position limits should be applied to freight rate derivatives (wet and dry freight) based on the open interest both in the spot month and in the other months.


Position limits should be applied to derivative contracts relating to indices if the underlying index is materially based on commodity underlyings as defined in Article 2 No. 6 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565 of 25 April 2016. ESMA considers that the underlying index is materially based on commodities if such commodities have a weighting of more than 50% in the composition of the underlying index. The spot and the other months’ limits should be based on open interest only, in accordance with Article 13(1) of RTS 21, as no single measurable deliverable supply can be determined for the commodities contained within the index.


A commodity derivative contract in the legal form of a “spread” or “diff” contract is a contract that is cash-settled and whose value is determined by the difference between two reference commodities which may vary in type, grade, location, time of delivery, or other features. The application of the regime regarding these contracts is dealt with specifically in question 17.

 

For other derivatives listed in Section C10 of Annex I of MiFID II and in Article 8 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565 of 25 April 2016, ESMA is not expecting the setting of any position limits as the underlyings of such derivatives are not considered to be commodities as defined in Article 2 No. 6 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565 of 25 April 2016.


Question 11 [Last update: 29/03/2017]

 


Can a hedge exemption be netted against positions in derivatives which are not objectively measurable as reducing risks directly related to that person’s commercial activity?


Answer 11


No. Once an exemption has been granted and positions are approved as risk-reducing in accordance with Article 8 of draft RTS 21, those positions fall outside the position limit regime. Otherwise, the benefit of a risk-reducing position would be double-counted, by first being excluded from the limit and then being used to offset a speculative exposure.


Question 12 [Last update: 29/03/2017]

 


What is the meaning of the ‘single fungible pool of open interest’ in Art 5.1(b) of RTS 21? Does it refer only to those commodity derivatives cleared in the same central counterparty?


Answer 12


Commodity derivatives with a single fungible pool of open interest would include those cleared by the same central counterparty (CCP) and those in interoperable CCPs which may be closed out against each other. It would also include other commodity derivatives with delivery obligations which are fungible and can be closed out against each other (for example, through the operational netting provided by a transmission system operator).

 

Question 13 [Last update: 29/03/2017]


How should contracts that have a high variability of open interest during the year be treated (i.e. minimum open interest is below 10,000 lots but maximum above it)?


Answer 13


Article 15 of RTS 21 states that new and illiquid contracts for which the total combined open interest in spot and other months’ contracts does not exceed 10,000 lots for a consecutive three-month period are assigned a position limit of 2,500 lots. Therefore, any contract with a high variability would have to exceed the threshold of 10,000 lots of open interest on a daily basis based on end-of-day figures for three consecutive months before an individualised position limit has to be set for that contract.

 

Question 14 [Last update: 07/07/2017]


Is it necessary for a Non-Financial Entity (NFE) to apply to the relevant NCA of a trading venue for a position limit exemption in all contracts in which that NFE holds positions?

 

Answer 14

 

No. It is necessary only for an NFE to apply for an exemption when it expects that one is necessary to permit it to hold a position that is risk-reducing for its commercial activities which would be in excess of the position limit for that commodity derivative which has been set by the NCA.

 

There is no requirement under MIFID II to apply for a position limit exemption if an NFE does not expect to need one for its normal level of activities.

 

Question 15 [Last update: 15/12/2017]

 

How should the spot month be defined for contracts where there are daily, weekly, quarterly and calendar as well as monthly variants of the same contract?

 

Answer 15

 

The determination of the spot month for the application of the spot month position limit should be made by the NCA on the basis of the contract specification and the characteristics of the market for that particular commodity derivative.

 

Where there are daily or weekly as well as monthly contracts, the positions to be included in the spot month period and subject to the position limit, include positions in contracts referencing days or weeks which fall entirely inside that spot month.

 

For many contracts, the spot month will be the current calendar month in which delivery is taking place (until the final day of that month). For example, between 1 and 30 January, January is the spot month.

 

In other contracts, where e.g. the January contract expires at the end of December, the spot month will change to the next calendar month which is available to trade. For these contracts, for most of January, the spot month will be February (and positions in any days or weeks falling wholly within February will count towards the spot month limit).

 

Question 16 [Last update: 27/03/2018]


How can limits be set for contracts with an open interest between 5,000 and 10,000 lots which have a low number of market participants or market makers as described in Article 19(2) of RTS 21?


Answer 16


Article 15(1)(a) and (c) of RTS 21 establishes a fixed limit of respectively 2,500 lots for lower liquidity commodity derivative contracts and 2.5 million securities for lower liquidity securitised derivatives whereas Article 19(2) of RTS 21 allows limits of up to 50% if the contract has less than ten market participants or less than three investment firms acting as market makers.
RTS 21 does not establish a hierarchy between these two Articles.

 

Accordingly, to achieve the aims set out in Article 57(1) of MiFID II, where commodity derivatives traded on a trading venue have a total combined open interest in spot and other months’ contracts exceeding 5,000 lots, authorities may set the limits of positions held in those commodity derivatives using either the default 2,500 lot limit under Article 15(1)(a) of RTS 21 or a limit within the range established by Article 19(2) of RTS 21.

 

The limit under Article 19(2) of RTS 21 would be used where the automatic limit under Article 15(1)(a) would unduly constrain the operation of the market and prevent the contract from supporting the functioning of commercial activities in the underlying market, as clarified in Recital (1) of RTS 21. The limit would be established in accordance with the baseline and the relevant adjustment factors set out in Article 14 of RTS 21.


For securitised derivatives with an issuance size between five and ten million securities, a similar approach applies. Where necessary to allow for the proper operation of the market, competent authorities may set a position limit within the range established in Article 19(2) of RTS 21 when the conditions thereof are met.

 

The position limit would apply to the number of securities in issuance and would be the same for the spot month and the other months.

 

Question 17 [Last update: 27/03/2018]


How are position limits applied to intercommodity ‘spread’ or ‘diff’ contracts?

 

Answer 17


A commodity derivative contract in the legal form of a “spread” or “diff” contract is a cash- settled contract whose value is determined by the difference between two reference commodities that may vary in, inter alia, type, grade, location, or delivery characteristics. Whilst having multiple underlying constituents, the spread derivative is available on a trading venue as a single tradable financial instrument.


A spread contract differs from a ‘spread trading strategy’ (two or more commodity contracts traded together to achieve a particular economic effect), as such a strategy may be executed by a single action in a venue’s trading systems, but it remains composed of separate, and legally distinct commodity derivatives which are executed as trades simultaneously.


As a spread contract has no single underlying commodity at a specific place or time, it is not possible to link it to a single physical deliverable supply against a contractual obligation to physically settle the trade. It is for this reason all spread contracts are cash-settled and not physically settled.


Article 57(4) of MiFID II states ‘A competent authority shall set limits for each contract in commodity derivatives traded on trading venues based on the methodology [...]’. Whilst specifically referencing each contract, this should refer to outright instruments (i.e. the disaggregated components of spreads) and the limits be applied at that level. The prevailing limits will apply to the net eligible positions, inclusive of spread limits, post-disaggregation.


In cases where a constituent leg is not independently admitted for trading, then the spread itself will receive a limit (de minimis or bespoke). In these cases, the same methodology as for C10 commodity derivatives that have no physical underlying will apply, as such the open interest figure for the spread shall be used as the baseline for both the Spot Month and Other Months’ limits.

 

Question 18 [Last update: 02/10/2018]

 

Do position limits also apply to positions in contracts that have been entered into prior to 3 January 2018 and are traded on a trading venue, including an OTF, or are economically equivalent OTC contracts (EEOTC) to those traded on a trading venue?

 

Answer 18

 

Yes. The position limits regime does apply to all positions in commodity derivatives offered by EU trading venues and EEOTC contracts, irrespective of the time when the contracts have been entered into.

This is even the case if the relevant financial instrument was not a financial instrument at the time of the contract formation, e.g. prior to the application of MiFID II on 3 January 2018.

This is because all positions in a MiFID II commodity derivative held by a position holder are assessed constantly and from the point of application (see also Q&A 1). Articles 57 and 58 of MiFID II do not refer to the formation of the contract in any of their provisions.

As soon as a financial instrument becomes subject to the position limits regime, the position limits apply to the positions of position holders and are to be reported and monitored against position limits.

 


 

 


Directive (EU) 2021/338 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2021 amending Directive 2014/65/EU as regards information requirements, product governance and position limits, and Directives 2013/36/EU and (EU) 2019/878 as regards their application to investment firms, to help the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis - published in the Official Journal of the European Union

Recitals 12 - 19

(12) Competent authorities currently have to set and apply limits on the size of a net position which a person can hold at all times in commodity derivatives traded on trading venues and in economically equivalent over-the-counter (EEOTC) contracts. As the position limit regime has proved to be unfavourable for the development of new commodity markets, nascent commodity markets should be excluded from the position limit regime. Instead, position limits should only apply to critical or significant commodity derivatives that are traded on trading venues, and to their EEOTC contracts. Critical or significant derivatives are commodity derivatives with an open interest of at least 300 000 lots on average over a one-year period. Due to the critical importance of agricultural commodities for citizens, agricultural commodity derivatives and their EEOTC contracts will remain under the current position limit regime.

(13) Directive 2014/65/EU does not allow hedging exemptions for any financial entities. Several predominantly commercial groups that set up a financial entity for their trading purposes have found themselves in a situation where their financial entity could not carry out all the trading for the group, as the financial entity was not eligible for the hedging exemption. Therefore, a narrowly defined hedging exemption for financial entities should be introduced. That hedging exemption should be available where, within a predominantly commercial group, a person has been registered as an investment firm and trades on behalf of that commercial group. To limit the hedging exemption to those financial entities that trade on behalf of the non-financial entities in a predominantly commercial group, that exemption should only apply to the positions held by such financial entity that are objectively measurable as reducing risks directly relating to the commercial activities of the non-financial entities of the group.

(14) Even in liquid contracts, only a limited number of market participants typically act as market makers in commodity markets. When those market participants have to apply position limits, they are not able to be as effective as market makers. Therefore, an exemption from the position limit regime should be introduced for financial and non-financial counterparties for positions resulting from transactions undertaken to fulfil obligations to provide liquidity.

(15) The amendments as regards the position limit regime are designed to support the development of new energy contracts, and do not seek to relax the regime for agricultural commodity derivatives.

(16) The current position limit regime also does not recognise the unique characteristics of securitised derivatives. Securitised derivatives are transferable securities within the meaning of point (c) of point (44) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU. The securitised derivatives market is characterised by a large number of different issuances, each one registered with the central securities depository for a specific size, and any possible increase follows a specific procedure duly approved by the relevant competent authority. That is in contrast to commodity derivative contracts, for which the amount of open interest, and thereby the size of a position, is potentially unlimited. At the time of issue, the issuer or the intermediary in charge of the distribution of the issuance holds 100 % of the issue, which challenges the very application of a position limit regime. In addition, most securitised derivatives are then ultimately held by a large number of retail investors, which does not raise the same risk of abuse of a dominant position or to orderly pricing and settlement conditions as for commodity derivative contracts. Moreover, the notion of spot month and other months, for which position limits are to be set under Article 57(3) of Directive 2014/65/EU, is not applicable to securitised derivatives. Securitised derivatives should therefore be excluded from the application of position limits and reporting requirements.

(17) Since the entry into force of Directive 2014/65/EU, no same commodity derivative contracts have been identified. Due to the concept of same commodity derivative in that Directive, the calculation methodology for determining the other months’ position limit is detrimental to the trading venue with the less liquid market when trading venues are competing on commodity derivatives based on the same underlying and sharing the same characteristics. Therefore, the reference to ‘same contract’ in Directive 2014/65/EU should be deleted. Competent authorities should be able to agree that the commodity derivatives traded on their respective trading venues are based on the same underlying and share the same characteristics, in which case the central competent authority within the meaning of the first subparagraph of Article 57(6) of Directive 2014/65/EU should set the position limit.

(18) Significant differences exist in the way positions are managed by trading venues in the Union. Therefore, position management controls should be reinforced where necessary.

(19) In order to ensure the further development of euro-denominated commodity markets in the Union, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of all of the following: the procedure by which persons are able to apply for an exemption for positions resulting from transactions undertaken to fulfil obligations to provide liquidity; the procedure by which a financial entity that is part of a predominantly commercial group is able to apply for a hedging exemption for positions held by that financial entity that are objectively measurable as reducing risks directly relating to the commercial activities of the non-financial entities of that predominantly commercial group; the clarification of the content of position management controls; and the development of criteria for establishing when an activity is to be considered to be ancillary to the main business at group level. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making. In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.

 

 

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