Mumbai: The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) may approach its board to seek ways to resolve a regulatory stalemate with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which poses roadblocks to billions of dollars of bond and derivatives trade by European banks in India, said people familiar with the matter.
The developments come at a time when European banks are shelling out hefty sums as central counterparty exposures for dealing with the Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL), the RBI-supervised organisation which has found itself at the epicentre of the regulatory logjam between the Indian central bank and the ESMA.
“Their (ESMA’s) plan is to go to the board of supervisors and see if something in the nature of concessions can be received in order to facilitate a new MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the RBI,” said one of the persons, who did not wish to be identified. “There is the issue of several member states in Europe and the difficulty in altering official language, but the October 2024 deadline is not too far, and the Bank of England has come to an agreement with the RBI.”
ET’s queries emailed to the ESMA did not elicit a response till press time.
The CCIL hosts the trading platform for domestic government bonds and overnight indexed swap rates.
In October 2022, the ESMA de-recognised six Indian clearing houses including the CCCIL, with effect from May 2023. The move came after the RBI refused the European body rights of audit and inspection over the CCIL.
While some of the contentious provisions of oversights on the CCIL are likely to have been watered down by the ESMA, other matters of negotiation included information sharing and fee structures, said the people cited earlier.
National regulators in France and Germany last year provided additional time of 18 months till October 2024 for banks from their countries to comply with the ESMA’s de-recognition of the CCIL. However, the ESMA said that a penal charge would be applicable for European banks’ transactions with the CCIL. European banks with Indian operations include Societe Generale, Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank.
