BoE consults on approach to use its requirements and permissions powers to facilitate mobilisation of new CCPs

The Bank of England (BoE) has published a consultation paper proposing a new statement of policy (SoP) that will establish the BoE's approach to using its permissions and requirements powers to facilitate a discretionary mobilisation stage as part of the onboarding process of new central counterparties (CCPs). In particular, the draft SoP sets out how the BoE would impose voluntary de minimis limits on CCP activity and, where appropriate, grant time-limited permissions to modify or waive certain CCP rules (except for the fundamental rules in the CCP Rulebook). In addition, the consultation seeks views on how CCPs can apply for mobilisation and the information that prospective CCPs should provide, along with details on how CCPs would exit mobilisation.

This consultation follows the BoE's earlier consultation on "ensuring the resilience of CCPs", which proposed replacing the firm‑facing requirements of the UK European Market Infrastructure Regulation (UK EMIR) with BoE rules. The BoE expects the permissions power to apply to those rules once finalised, alongside other rules sitting within the BoE's FMI Rulebook. As such, references to specific rules in the draft SoP under this consultation should not be viewed as a final position on any particular rule. The draft SoP may also be updated to reflect changes arising from the BoE's consultations on rule permissions and waivers and on operational incident and third party reporting for financial market infrastructures.

The final SoP will take effect following consideration of feedback to this consultation and it will interlink with other policies or currently draft rules that the BoE has recently consulted on. The point at which the final SoP will come into effect depends on:

• Publication of the final CCP rules and operational incident and outsourcing and third-party reporting (IOREP) rules in the BoE's FMI Rulebook, expected no earlier than the end of H1 2026 and which will then be subject to a transitional implementation period. The BoE proposes that the final mobilisation SoP will enter into force at the same time.
• HM Treasury (HMT) making regulations specifying the scope of the rules to which the permissions power applies. HMT has indicated its intention to set the scope broadly to cover any BoE rules, similar to the approach taken for the PRA.

The deadline for responses to the consultation is 4 June.

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