European Commodity Clearing (ECC) has held the first meeting of its newly established risk committee.

The establishment of the committee represents a significant step towards putting clearing houses in the framework of the current clearing and financial market regulation (EMIR regulation, CPSS-IOSCO rules for financial infrastructures).

The new committee, which will meet four times a year in the future, has the task of advising the ECC management with regard to questions of risk management.

On 13 September 2012, the constituent meeting was held in Frankfurt. All members of the committee have comprehensive expertise and long-standing experience in the clearing and financial sector.

The committee consists of the following members:

Professor Harald R. Pfab (chief executive officer of Sachsen Bank)
Jürg Spillmann (deputy chief executive officer of Eurex Clearing)
Vincent van Lith (listed derivatives head of energy of Deutsche Bank)
Bertrand Meyer (deputy global head of BNP Paribas Commodity Futures) and
Uwe Schulz (chief risk officer for RWE Supply & Trading)

Spillmann (pictured) assumes the position of the chairman of the committee for a term of office of one year.

The committee will discuss all questions which are relevant for the clearing house’s risk management and risk strategy. As an independent panel of experts, the committee reports directly to the ECC management board and issues recommendations for it. These recommendations include, in particular, the criteria for the admission of clearing members and the inclusion of clearing for new product classes or markets, advice in the event of major changes to the risk and margin model and the procedure in the event of the default of clearing members (default process) as well as advice with regard to the outsourcing of essential functions.

European Commodity Clearing is the central clearing house for energy and related products in Europe.