Over the coming months ESMA will be reviewing and determining which products will be mandated to clear. ISDA have written a research paper in response to explain the vast range of Equity derivatives in the market, and how these don't easily map into the regulators current view of the taxonomy. The paper has useful descriptions of where the products are traded, the way these products work (at a high level) and data on volumes across global markets. Compared to some markets, Equity Derivatives straddle some hybrid approaches:

• Pure Exchange Traded and Cleared
• OTC Traded and Cleared
• Pure OTC

The paper explains these permutations, the main thrust is that many of the specific equity derivatives trade in such small numbers to cause them to fall beneath any reasonable measurement of liquidity for clearing, yet the current regulatory view is broadbrush and may cause mayhem if not made more granular.

All the materials are attached below for posterity, but the original source is over at ISDA here: http://www2.isda.org/functional-areas/research/studies/

The ISDA intro follows:

The approval of the first central counterparties under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation has focused attention on how a clearing determination will be applied across the European Union. This paper outlines the composition of the equity derivatives market and the extent of central clearing today, as well as the criteria that should be assessed when determining whether a clearing mandate should apply in the EU. In addition, the paper examines whether the liquidity of the underlying reference share – proposed by ESMA as a possible method of defining a class of product – is appropriate for clearing mandate determinations.