ESMA consults on future guidelines for portability between trade repositories

There are currently six authorised TRs within the European Union which record the records of derivate transactions and which are maintained for at least 10 years following the termination of the relevant contracts. ESMA ensures that the TR data available to public authorities is of sufficient quality for them to monitor risk in derivatives markets.

The need to transfer data to another TR may arise for different reasons. The guidelines on which ESMA is consulting therefore address separately the situations where the transfer is due to a withdrawal of registration of the TR from the cases in which the transfer is done on a voluntary basis and under normal market conditions. The incentives and motivations for the relevant parties in each of the two cases would be different and therefore there is a need for a specific approach in each particular situation.

The proposed guidelines establish high-level principles that would need to be followed by the TR participants, reporting entities, counterparties and central counterparties (CCPs), on the one hand, and the TRs on the other hand.

In this context, the purpose of the proposed guidelines is to:

• ensure that the competitive multiple-TR environment is guaranteed, and that TR participants can benefit from competing offers;
• ensure the quality of data available to authorities, including the aggregations carried out by TRs, even when the TR participant changes the TR to which it reports and irrespective of the reason for such a change; and
• ensure that there is a consistent and harmonised way to transfer records from one TR to another TR and support the continuity of reporting and reconciliation in all cases including the withdrawal of registration of a TR.

ESMA is seeking stakeholders’ views on the draft guidelines by Q1 2017 and expects to publish a final report of these guidelines by end of Q2/ beginning of Q3 of 2017.