On 29 June 2026, the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) published an updated version of its Recommendations for Reporting under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR).
The overarching aim of the Recommendations is to establish among stakeholders a common understanding of the relevant reporting rules and definitions under the SFDR. It is targeted at financial or non-financial counterparties to securities financing transactions (SFTs), specifically repos, who have a direct reporting obligation under either the SFTR or its UK counterpart, as well as relevant market infrastructure providers and any other service providers that offer SFTR reporting solutions. It applies to both repurchase transactions and buy/sell-backs, which are both types of repo. It does not explicitly provide guidance on the reporting of other types of SFT defined in the SFTR, such as securities lending transactions or margin lending transactions, although some overlap is inevitable as many of the issues are common across SFTs.
The Recommendations are updated from time to time. In this latest update the ICMA introduces four new questions and numerous further updates, reflecting recent regulatory developments as well as the ongoing discussions with reporting firms. Compared to the previous public version, the updated Recommendations include a number of important clarifications, particularly covering recent regulatory developments such as reporting of DTCC-sponsored repo and repo cleared via the DTCC agent clearing service, which are expected to become more prominent in light of the US mandatory clearing mandate. It also addresses emerging topics, including reporting of repos involving digital assets.