The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has published Governance arrangements for the unique transaction identifier (UTI): Conclusions and implementation plan. The UTI is a key global harmonized identifier for reporting over-the-counter (OTC) derivative transactions, in particular designed to facilitate effective aggregation of transaction reports. The final arrangements take account of stakeholder responses to a public consultation launched in March 2017, as well as an industry workshop.
The primary purpose of the UTI is to uniquely identify individual OTC derivatives transactions in reports to TRs. In particular, a UTI helps to ensure the consistent aggregation of OTC derivatives transactions by minimising the likelihood that the same transaction will be counted more than once (for instance, because it is reported by more than one counterparty to a transaction, or to more than one TR).
The FSB’s conclusions and implementation plan for UTI governance arrangements complement the work of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) as they develop global guidance on harmonization of data elements that are reported to TRs. On 28 February 2017 CPMI and IOSCO issued Technical Guidance: Harmonisation of the Unique Transaction Identifier (UTI Technical Guidance), setting out the UTI Data Standard, which contains a structural definition and a format specification. The UTI Technical Guidance also addresses associated matters such as the circumstances in which a UTI should be used, who should be responsible for generating a UTI, and the impact of lifecycle events on the UTI.
The FSB report sets out conclusions on the governance arrangements for UTI including:
- a recommendation that jurisdictions implement the UTI no later than end-2020;
- the designation of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as the responsible body for publishing and maintaining the UTI data standard; and
- the designation of CPMI and IOSCO as the appropriate bodies to undertake the governance functions allocated to an International Governance Body relating to the UTI on an interim basis.