Updates & insights

With 7 months to go before the first SFT reporting deadline, firms subject to that deadline should be very well advanced with their system preparations. Many firms should have started their user acceptance and integration tests, or at least should have signed-off test scripts. Even firms who have elected to

The Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR) is set to increase transparency in the securities financing transactions market, not currently monitored by other regulations. We examine the challenges and opportunities arising from SFTR. Under SFTR counterparties to SFTs must report the details of future, and modifications or terminations of past, securities

The recent UK convictions of Fabiana Abdel-Malek and Walid Choucair for insider dealing, and the publication of the UK FCA’s latest comments on the monitoring and control issues raised by the case, has served to refocus the minds of market participants on the management of inside information as required under

On July 26th, ACER published its 3rd Open Letter on REMIT data quality. Despite the fact that the EU wholesale energy market is several years into REMIT transaction reporting, ACER is still noting issues with data quality which prevent it from fully performing its market surveillance activities. Many of these

On July 16th, ACER published details of its public consultation on the definition of inside information, itself a critical part of the operation and enforcement of REMIT. At the same time, ACER published V4 of its Guidance of the application of REMIT, which contains additional information on how the obligation

With less than a year to go to the start of the SFTR reporting obligations, it is essential that companies do not get complacent regarding the state of their preparations. ESMA’s Steven Maijoor’s recent Madrid speech repeated the message that improving data availability and quality is at the forefront of

A Buy-side Backlash Against Algo-trading? MiFID II has much to say on the organisational requirements governing investment firms engaging in algorithmic trading. Indeed, NCAs are starting to address the general strategic issues that big data (BD), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) raise regarding the integrity of their markets.

ESMA issues new Opinion on Energy and Commodity Market Sizes On 27th May 2019, ESMA published its latest Opinion on the overall market sizes of the range of energy, commodity, and emissions asset classes as defined under MiFID II.  Overall market size is a key input into the Ancillary Activity

SFTR – A Look at the Data Management Issues – Part 2 Required Data On 22nd March 2019, the EU published the SFTR implementing regulation in the Official Journal of the European Union. Publication confirms the start-dates of transaction reporting for investment and non-financial companies. Data managers have a number

SFTR – A Look at the Data Management Issues – Part 1 The Basics On 22nd March 2019, the EU published the SFTR implementing regulation in the Official Journal of the European Union. Publication confirms the start-dates of transaction reporting for investment and non-financial companies. Data managers have a number

Update on Market Abuse Under REMIT At the beginning of the year we predicted that a greater focus on market abuse would be one of the key regulatory themes of 2019.  ACER has recently published the latest in a series of Guidance Notes on the application of REMIT Article 5

Beware of Relying on ‘Industry Standards’ Surveillance System Calibration – Beware of Relying on ‘Industry Standards’ The FCA has been openly critical of surveillance system calibration and configuration. They disapprove of market participants’ tendency to implement vendor-supplied systems using ‘out of the box’ and ‘industry standard’ settings to calibrate their

Do compliance managers need to worry about new security loopholes caused by process and system weaknesses hiding in plain sight? Not if they take some basic precautions. Film and TV sometimes touch on ‘white collar’ financial crime. UK ITV’s latest drama, ‘Cleaning Up’, covers insider trading, but from an original

ESMA published six opinions on position limits regarding commodity derivatives under MiFID II/MIFIR. These confirm the position limits proposed by the governing NCas, so market participants can now set their trading, position management, and surveillance systems accordingly.

After 2018’s rush to introduce compliance with new regulations such as MiFID II and GDPR, what will 2019 bring for compliance and IT systems managers? Probably the end of any ‘amnesty’ period for poor compliance, and greater focus on tackling algorithmic trading and market abuse.