Principals and senior representatives of authorities responsible for the regulation of the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets in Australia, Brazil, the European Union, Hong Kong, Japan, Ontario, Québec, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States met on 20 September 2013 at the headquarters of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in Paris.  The Principals and representatives include:  ·         Steven Maijoor, Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA); ·         Greg Medcraft, Chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission; ·         Leonardo Pereira, Chairman of the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (Brazil); ·         Patrick Pearson, Acting Director at the European Commission; ·         Ashley Alder, Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission; ·         Masamichi Kono, Vice-Commissioner of the Japan Financial Services Agency; ·         Howard Wetston, Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission; ·         Anne Héritier Lachat, Chair of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority; ·         Gary Gensler, Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission; ·         Mary Jo White, Chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission; ·         Chuan Teck Lee, Assistant Managing Director at the Monetary Authority of Singapore; ·         Louis Morisset, President and CEO, l’Autorité des marchés financiers du Québec.  The Principals discussed generally: the application of clearing requirements to foreign branches and affiliates; risk mitigation techniques for non-centrally cleared derivatives transactions, such as timely confirmation, portfolio reconciliation, portfolio compression, valuation and dispute resolution; the need to co-operate in the implementation of internationally agreed standards on margin for non-centrally cleared derivatives transactions; co-operation on equivalence and substituted compliance assessments among the relevant authorities; and co-operation between authorities in the supervision of registered foreign entities;  The Principals agreed to meet again in February to continue the discussion of the above points.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued today a consultation paper on draft technical standards implementing the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR), which aims to increase the transparency of shadow banking activities. Securities financing transactions (SFTs) are transactions where securities are used to borrow cash (or other higher investment-grade securities), or vice versa – this includes repurchase transactions, securities lending and sell/buy-back transactions.

ESMA fines DTCC Derivatives Repository Limited €64,000 for data access failures

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has fined the trade repository DTCC Derivatives Repository Limited (DDRL) €64,000, and issued a public notice, for negligently failing to put in place systems capable of providing regulators with direct and immediate access to derivatives trading data. This is a key requirement under the European Markets and Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) in order to improve transparency and facilitate the monitoring of systemic risks in derivatives markets.

This is the first time ESMA has taken enforcement action against a trade repository registered in the European Union (EU). DDRL is the largest EU registered trade repository.

ESMA found that DDRL failed to provide direct and immediate access to derivatives data from 21 March 2014 to 15 December 2014, a period of about nine months in which access delays increased from two days to 62 days after reporting and affected 2.6 billion reports. This was due to its negligence in:

• failing to put in place data processing systems that were capable of providing regulators with direct and immediate access to reported data;
• failing, once they became aware, to inform ESMA in a timely manner of the delays that were occurring; and
• taking three months to establish an effective remedial action plan even while delays were worsening.

DDRL’s failures caused delays to regulators accessing data, revealed systemic weaknesses in its organisation particularly its procedures, management systems or internal controls and negatively impacted the quality of the data it maintained.