In order to ensure a consistent and coherent functioning of colleges across the Union it is necessary to specify the arrangements for the participation in the colleges for CCPs to facilitate the exercise of the tasks specified in Regulation (EU) No 648/2012.

The exclusion of a central bank of issue of a relevant Union currency of financial instruments cleared in the CCP does not affect the rights of such central bank of issue to request and receive information in accordance with Article 18(3) and Article 84 of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012.

The activity of a CCP may be relevant for a particular central bank of issue in view of the volumes cleared in the currency issued by such central bank. However, the relevance of a currency for the participation of a central bank of issue in the college of the CCP should be determined by the share represented by that currency from among the CCP’s average open cleared positions, in order to maintain a proportionate size of the college.

To ensure college meetings achieve an effective result, the objectives of any meeting or activity of the college should be clearly identified by the competent authority of the CCP, in consultation with the college members. Those objectives should be circulated well in advance to the participants together with documentation prepared by the CCP’s competent authority or by other members of the college, so as to create effective discussion.

The function of colleges is to facilitate the exercise of the tasks specified in Regulation (EU) No 648/2012, and the tasks assigned to college members as well as their composition, establishment and management of colleges have been articulated by the legislator in the Regulation as legal obligations and, therefore, they are binding and directly applicable in all Members States. For the practical functioning of a college a written agreement should be adopted by the members of that college. In order to ensure the use of standard written agreements across CCP colleges, incorporating best practice on college operations, consistent approaches by competent authorities, and to facilitate the swift establishment of CCP colleges within the deadline established by Article 18(1) of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012, ESMA should issue guidelines and recommendations in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 16 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European Securities and Markets Authority)2.

Nothing in this act should prejudice the power of the Commission to launch infringement proceedings in accordance with Article 258 of the TFEU, as well as the actions provided for in Article 265 and Article 271(d) of the TFEU.

To ensure the timely and up-to-date exchange of information amongst college members, the college should meet regularly and allow the opportunity for college members to discuss and provide input to the competent authority’s review of the arrangements, strategy, process and mechanism employed by the CCP to comply with Regulation (EU) No 648/2012, as well as to discuss the competent authority’s evaluation of the risks to which the CCP is, or may be, exposed and that it could pose.

To ensure all the views of the college members are duly taken into account, the competent authority should do its utmost to ensure that any disagreement among authorities that are to become members of a college are resolved before finalising the written agreement for the establishment and functioning of the college. ESMA should facilitate the finalisation of the agreement through its mediation role, where appropriate.

This Regulation is based on the draft regulatory technical standards submitted by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to the Commission.

ESMA has consulted, where relevant, the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Systemic Risk Board and the members of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) before submitting the draft technical standards on which this Regulation is based. In accordance with Article 10 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010, ESMA has conducted open public consultations on such draft regulatory technical standards, analysed the potential related costs and benefits and requested the opinion of the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group established in accordance with Article 37 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010,