At a glance: what will the revised EMIR clearing thresholds mean for you?

The EMIR clearing thresholds and calculation methodology are being changed.

On 25 February 2026, ESMA published the long-awaited final draft regulatory technical standards on the revised clearing thresholds.

Below we outline all you need to know about the proposed changes – why they are important; what the new calculation methodologies are; the revised thresholds and how they differ from those proposed in ESMA's earlier consultation; timelines for compliance; and whether firms will likely consider the changes beneficial.

For a breakdown of the jargon, please see the definitions box at the bottom of the page.

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Timeline

24 December 2024

The amending regulation in respect of EMIR came into force, known as "EMIR 3.0".
8 April 2025

ESMA published a draft EMIR 3.0 RTS for consultation, proposing new clearing thresholds.
25 February 2026

ESMA published the final draft RTS on the revised clearing thresholds.
TBC

ESMA publishes the RTS in the Official Journal of the European Union.
20 days after the RTS is published in the Official Journal:

The revised clearing thresholds apply (although counterparties can wait to run calculations at their usual point in the year – see below for further detail).

Why is this important?

Optimised treatment under EMIR for market participants relies on counterparties remaining below the clearing thresholds.

FCs and NFCs that exceed the clearing thresholds become subject to the EMIR clearing obligation. NFCs which exceed the clearing thresholds become subject to other EMIR obligations – most importantly, the obligation to exchange daily variation margin.

Please note that these changes apply only to counterparties within scope of EMIR. The equivalent clearing thresholds under UK EMIR have not changed.

What are the key changes for NFCs?

Currently:

When conducting clearing threshold calculations, NFCs include non-risk-reducing ("speculative") over-the-counter ("OTC") derivatives transactions only.
Hedging transactions entered into to reduce risks relating to commercial or treasury financing activity of the NFC's group are excluded from these calculations.
Calculations include the nominal values of speculative derivatives transactions to which an NFC is the counterparty, as well as those carried out by any other NFCs which are in the same "group" as the NFC.

Changes going forward:

The parameters of the hedging carve-out were helpfully, and intentionally, unchanged – although ESMA had a mandate to reconsider the conditions for this hedging carve-out, it elected not to change the existing criteria.
Calculations will include only the nominal values of the NFC's speculative derivatives transactions which are not cleared through an authorised CCP. Speculative transactions of other group NFCs and any cleared speculative transactions will no longer be included.

What are the key changes for FCs?

Currently:

When conducting clearing threshold calculations, FCs include the gross notional value of all OTC derivatives transactions (regardless of whether they are speculative or risk-reducing) entered into by the FC and other entities within the same "group" as the FC.

Changes going forward:

FCs will be required to look at two measures when conducting clearing threshold calculations:
- The first is the uncleared positions of the FC and all entities in its group.
- The second measure is the aggregate of its cleared and uncleared OTC derivatives entered by the FC or entities in its group.
Exceeding either of these thresholds will trigger the clearing obligation.

The proposed clearing thresholds (measured in gross notional value)

Do counterparties need to conduct calculations on day 1 of the revised thresholds coming into force?

No.

ESMA has confirmed that counterparties do not need to run the revised clearing threshold calculations on the day of entry into force of the RTS – counterparties can recalculate their positions, based on the new methodology, at the time of the year they usually do so. For many market participants, this will be in June.

For counterparties that wish to conduct revised calculations earlier, this remains an option. Counterparties are able to re-do their calculation earlier than the standard twelve months (and then again every twelve months).

Are the changes helpful to market participants?

This will be fact dependent.

For market participants trading predominantly FX out of EU NFCs, these changes are very likely to be favourable and simplify annual EMIR clearing threshold calculations.

However, for market participants which:

Trade out of FCs; or
Trade out of UK entities (noting that UK EMIR clearing threshold calculations have not changed); or
Trade with UK banks (which typically require a representation as to the counterparty's UK EMIR classification),

these changes may add another complication.

As always with regulatory changes, there are potential routes to further optimisation. To understand how these changes may impact your structures, please reach out to one of our team members.