EU active account rule may impose costly CCP basis

Buy-siders say end-users could be forced into volatile Eurex/LCH basis at the worst time under EU proposals

A European Union proposal aimed at forcing some derivatives instruments to be cleared onshore risks imposing an ‘import tax’ on end-users, senior buy-side market participants have warned. They fear their firms may be pushed onto the wrong side of a pricing discrepancy between euro interest rate swaps cleared on Frankfurt based-Eurex and London-based LCH.

The active account requirement, which forms part of the second major revision of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation – popularly