The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a final report containing draft technical standards on data to be made publicly available by trade repositories under Article 81 of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).

Article 81 of EMIR requires ESMA to develop draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) specifying the frequency and the details of the information to be made available to the relevant authorities and the information to be published as well as operational standards required in order to aggregate and compare data across trade repositories and for the relevant authorities to have access to information as necessary.

ESMA fulfilled this mandate in September 2012 and submitted draft RTS to the European Commission, which became Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No. 151/2013. The RTS consisted of a definition of the data: (i) to be made publicly available on a weekly basis by trade repositories (TRs); (ii) the access levels for EEA and third country authorities; and (iii) a brief reference to the use of communication procedures, standards for messaging and reference data used at international level without specifying or prescribing standards to be used.

The final report which has now been published by ESMA focuses on amendments to the RTS concerning the aggregate position data to be made publicly available by TRs under EMIR and specifies the relevant operational standards to compare and aggregate this type of data across TRs. The final report leverages on the feedback received to the public consultation undertaken between mid-December and mid-February.

ESMA notes that there are still a number of discussions at the international level on the aggregation of data across TRs. In light of this ESMA has decided to keep the wording of the draft RTS sufficiently flexible to accommodate further developments.

ESMA has sent the draft RTS to the Commission, which has three months to decide whether or not to endorse them.

View ESMA issues final standards for publication of derivatives data, 11 July 2017