Data Reporting Services Providers

Data reporting services providers (DRSPs) enhance transparency and effective supervision of financial markets, enabling investors and national competent authorities (NCAs) to receive accurate and comprehensive trading data.

Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 on markets in financial instruments (MiFIR), as amended by Regulation (EU) 2019/2175 (ESAs review), provides the following categories of DRSPs:    

  • approved reporting mechanisms (ARMs): entities providing the service of reporting details of transactions to competent authorities or to ESMA on behalf of investment firms
  • approved publication arrangements (APAs): entities providing the service of publishing trade reports on behalf of investment firms
  • consolidated tape providers (CTPs): entities providing the service of collecting trade reports from trading venues and APAs, consolidating them into a continuous electronic live data stream providing price and volume data per financial instrument.
primary_grey_background

MiFIR (as amended by the ESAs Review) envisages that - starting from 1 January 2022 - ESMA is granted direct responsibilities regarding the authorisation and supervision of DRSPs, except for those APAs and ARMs that fall under a derogation.

The transfer of supervisory responsibilities from NCAs to ESMA was driven by the following reasons:

  • the cross-border nature of data and its key role in markets transparency and financial supervision;   
  • the pivotal role of DRSPs across Union in enabling NCAs and market participants to obtain access to markets data;
  • the necessity to achieve economies of scale and data quality convergence.
white_background
Authorisation

The authorisation is a formalised process through which ESMA - or the relevant national competent authority in case of derogation - is assessing the information provided by applicants as requested in the relevant technical standards on authorisation and organisational requirements (see below under ''Relevant Regulatory Provisions and Technical Standards") and is deciding on their compliance with MiFIR requirements.

To receive further information on the authorisation process, please contact the Markets and Data Reporting Department at supervision-drsp@esma.europa.eu.

 You can find here the list of authorised DRSPs.

primary_grey_background
Supervision

ESMA applies a risk-based, data-driven and outcome focused approach when supervising DRSPs, in order to ensure that they comply on an on-going basis with all MiFIR regulatory requirements.

ESMA supervises DRSPs through a combination of desk-based supervisory activities as well as investigations and on-site inspections.

The desk-based activities comprise:

  • Monitoring of data submitted by DRSPs
  • Analysis of complaints received from the national competent authorities and market participants
  • Review of the notifications made by DRSPs of material changes to the conditions of their authorisation
  • Analysis of the periodic information that DRSPs submit to ESMA

ESMA has the power to take appropriate enforcement action where it discovers a breach of MiFIR. These actions can include, among others, the imposition of fines or the withdrawal of registration.

For information on the current supervisory focus, please see the latest ESMA’s annual report and work programme or the ad-hoc reports ESMA has published on different specific supervisory topics. 

white_background
Derogation criteria

ESMA does not supervise those APAs and ARMs that by way of derogation from MiFIR on account of their limited relevance for the European Union (EU) market, are subject to authorisation and supervision by a competent authority of a Member State.

The criteria identifying the DRSPs to be derogated from ESMA authorisation and supervision are defined by the European Commission via a delegated act, which takes into account the following elements:

a) the extent to which the data reporting services are provided to investment firms authorised in one Member State only;

b) the number of trade reports published by the APA or the number of transactions reported by the ARM.

The assessment of the derogation criteria is performed every year by ESMA.

For information regarding the current Competent Authority of each DRSP, please refer to the ESMA Registers.

primary_grey_background

Documents on the applications for authorisation of DRSPs under MiFID/MiFIR

  • RTS regarding the details of authorisation, organisational requirements and the publication of transactions for DRSPs
  • ITS regarding the standard forms, templates and procedures for the authorisation of DRSPs
white_background
primary_grey_background

Documents on data reporting obligations under MiFID/MiFIR

  • RTS regarding post-trade transparency elements to be published by trading venues and APAs in respect of shares, depositary receipts, exchange-traded funds, certificates and other similar financial instruments
  • RTS regarding post-trade transparency elements to be published by trading venues and APAs in respect of in respect of bonds, structured finance products, emission allowances and derivatives
  • RTS on the reporting of transactions to competent authorities
  • Guidelines on transaction reporting, order record keeping and clock synchronisation under MiFID II and MiFIR reporting instructions
  • MiFIR data reporting Q&As  
  • Transparency Q&As
white_background
primary_grey_background

EC Delegated Regulations

white_background
primary_grey_background
primary_grey_background