# Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1178 of 10 June 2016 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards on the clearing obligation (Text with EEA relevance), Article 2: Categories of counterparties

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

1. For the purposes of Articles 3 and 4, the counterparties subject to the clearing obligation shall be divided in the following categories:
(a) Category 1, comprising counterparties which, on the date of entry into force of this Regulation, are clearing members, within the meaning of Article 2(14) of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012, for at least one of the classes of OTC derivatives set out in Annex I of this Regulation or in Annex I of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2205, of at least one of the CCPs authorised or recognised before that date to clear at least one of those classes;
(b) Category 2, comprising counterparties not belonging to Category 1 which belong to a group whose aggregate month-end average of outstanding gross notional amount of non-centrally cleared derivatives for January, February and March 2016 is above EUR 8 billion and which are any of the following:
(i) financial counterparties;
(ii) alternative investment funds as defined in Article 4(1)(a) of Directive 2011/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council that are non-financial counterparties;
(c) Category 3, comprising counterparties not belonging to Category 1 or Category 2 which are any of the following:
(i) financial counterparties;
(ii) alternative investment funds as defined in Article 4(1)(a) of Directive 2011/61/EU that are non-financial counterparties;
(d) Category 4, comprising non-financial counterparties that do not belong to Category 1, Category 2 or Category 3.
2. For the purposes of calculating the group aggregate month-end average of outstanding gross notional amount referred to in point (b) of paragraph 1, all of the group's non-centrally cleared derivatives, including foreign exchange forwards, swaps and currency swaps, shall be included.
3. Where counterparties are alternative investment funds as defined in Article 4(1)(a) of Directive 2011/61/EU or undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities as defined in Article 1(2) of Directive 2009/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, the EUR 8 billion threshold referred to in point (b) of paragraph 1 of this Article shall apply individually at fund level.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2016/1178/article/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2016-1178/article-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.