Final Standards on Aggregation and Publication of Derivatives Data by Trade Repositories

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published proposed amendments to its Regulatory Technical Standards under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation, following a public consultation between December 2016 and February 2017. ESMA provided final draft RTS to the European Commission in 2012 specifying the frequency and the details of the information to be made available by Trade Repositories to the relevant authorities and the information to be published by TRs. The RTS also specified the operational standards required to aggregate and compare data across TRs and for the relevant authorities to have access to information as necessary.

Since the original RTS were adopted as a Commission Delegated Regulation, shortcomings have been identified, in that published information is made available in different formats and at different times, which made aggregation of the published data an overly manual process for the public. The revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and the Benchmarks Regulation also require publication of certain aggregate figures for market participants, which ESMA believes TRs are well placed to supply.

The amendments to the RTS aim to better specify and enhance the data made public by TRs by setting out general rules on the frequency and timeliness of publication, the general technical aspects of aggregation for the purposes of publication and the details of aggregations for the purposes of benchmarks' and commodities' thresholds. The revised RTS will also require more granular information, including data per type of venue of execution, reporting and cleared status. Finally, the revised RTS provide clarifications related to the publication of data by TRs, specifically on the calculation of market activity and outstanding volumes for on- and off-venue traded derivatives and the avoidance of double counting across different TRs.

ESMA has submitted the final standards to the European Commission, which has three months to decide whether to adopt them as further delegated legislation.

View the Final Report.