It looks as if participants in the European over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets — particularly banks — are ready to meet their Unique Product Identifier (UPI) regulatory reporting requirements, according to the Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB). “The European Union will implement UPI reporting from 29 April 2024 as the second G20 jurisdiction, following the U.S. who… Read More >>
ESMA Survey Sheds Little Light on T+1 Impacts
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has received inconclusive responses to key issues around costs, operational impact, and the effect on market liquidity of shortening the settlement cycle in the European Union (E.U.). The E.U.’s regulatory body overseeing financial markets deferred drawing conclusions on many aspects, opting instead to glean insights from North America’s… Read More >>
Europe’s T+1 Lag Could Spur Global Settlement Disarray
The impending switch to T+1 settlement in North America scheduled for May 28, 2024, has raised concerns in Europe, where market participants report a lack of international testing. Although not officially moving to T+1 just yet, Europe launched its T+1 taskforce led by the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) in March last year. In early conversations… Read More >>
DTCC & TriOptima Target SFTR Deadlines
A solutions provider for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trading, TriOptima, is collaborating with post-trade infrastructure services and systems provider DTCC to facilitate new data links to repositories to help their mutual clients meet the Securities Financing Transactions Reconciliation (SFTR) deadlines hitting now in Europe. The E.U.’s SFTR rules are intended to mitigate systemic risk in the… Read More >>
Regulators Brace for Impacts of a Hard Brexit
The Brexit saga continues as the government of the United Kingdom debates how to create either a clear, negotiated path away from the European Union or leave via a much more risky, unnegotiated “hard exit.” As of this Monday night, April 1, the U.K. parliament was still mulling its options. The only certainty is that… Read More >>
Big Battles to Follow Breakthrough in Brexit Talks
It has been a rollercoaster couple of weeks for U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May. After six long torturous months of negotiations, there was a breakthrough on the Brexit divorce front last week between May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. However, the euphoria was short lived…. Read More >>
MiFID II Deadline Spurs Ops Overhauls for Firms
Although MiFID II is only four weeks away, buy- and sell-side firms are at different stages of preparation. For many, the goal is to cross the finish line on Jan. 3, 2018, but then to spend the rest of the year fine-tuning their systems and processes. “One of the unknowns is how many people are… Read More >>
CFTC’s Giancarlo Sounds the Alarm on E.U. Overreach
There are so many moving parts to the Brexit negotiations between the U.K. and the E.U., but the European Commission’s wish to tighten its grip on non-European clearinghouses has rankled U.S. regulators. In an opinion piece titled “An EU Plan to Invade U.S. Markets,” published in The Wall Street Journal by J. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman… Read More >>
SEC Pauses MiFID II Unbundling for 30 Months
The SEC, after consulting with European Union authorities, has issued three no-action letters intended to pause for 30-months some of the burdens associated with the MiFID II stipulation that firms unbundle research, a new requirement hitting home for many U.S. securities firms. However, SEC Commissioner Kara M. Stein, a Democrat on the commission, says that… Read More >>
Opus Launches GDPR Compliance Solution
Opus Targets GDPR Third-Party Requirements Opus, a vendor of compliance and risk management solutions, has launched the Third Party GDPR Compliance solution, created to “identify and manage General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) risk in third-party relationships,” officials say. “The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into force on May 25, 2018, is a… Read More >>
