SWIFT Eases Trade Reporting for EMIR Compliance
Following the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA’s) approval of six trade repositories, there is a start-date of 12 February 2014 for derivatives trade reporting under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), says financial messaging services provider SWIFT.
From 12 February, entities affected by the EMIR reporting obligations will need to report their trades to one of the newly-authorised repositories. SWIFT said that from 14 January customers can take advantage of its solutions for derivatives trade reporting, in order to fulfil their EMIR reporting obligations.
Trade repositories will warehouse derivatives trade records, playing a central role in enhancing derivative market transparency and reducing risks to financial stability. Entities impacted by EMIR can reuse their SWIFT infrastructure and take advantage of standardised messaging solutions to send their trade details to the repositories. In addition, SWIFT confirmations for foreign exchange (FX) and metals derivatives can be used to share Unique Trade Identifiers (UTIs), a critical enabler for successful reporting.
Among customers leveraging SWIFT for derivatives trade reporting under EMIR is Belgian banking and insurance group, Belfius Bank, which will use SWIFT’s FileAct messaging service to report its derivatives trades to European trade repository REGIS-TR.
“We considered using a web service-based solution to send trade details to REGIS-TR, but we opted for SWIFT FileAct because it offers better availability and reliability, allows us to send large files and enables better error handling through automated message monitoring,” said Luc Goossens, project management, financial markets, Belfius Bank.
SWIFT offers two options for trade reporting to the repositories. The first option is for reporting parties is to use their existing SWIFT FIN confirmation traffic. SWIFT’s over-the-counter (OTC) derivative confirmation messages include support for all data elements required as part of the EMIR technical standards, so financial institutions (FIs) can use FINInform, SWIFT’s FIN Copy solution, to have copies of trade confirmations sent directly to trade repositories. Another option is to use SWIFT’s FileAct to report all OTC derivatives asset classes for all data flows. FileAct supports any file format and small and large files.
Further information on EMIR many be accessed on the
gtnews Regulation page
.