On 21 December 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published guidelines concerning the securities financing transaction (SFT) reporting obligation as provided in Article 4 Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR), the trade repositories’ (TRs) obligations under Articles 5(7) and 12 SFTR, as well as the reporting start date as determined in Article 33(2) SFTR.
The guidelines apply to counterparties to SFTs as defined in Article 3(2) SFTR, the TRs as defined in Article 3(1) SFTR and Member State competent authorities.
The guidelines are intended to provide clarity on the:
- Reporting start date when it falls on a non-working day.
- Number of reportable SFTs.
- Population of reporting fields for different types of SFTs.
- Approach used to link SFT collateral with SFT loans.
- Population of reporting fields for margin data.
- Population of reporting fields for reuse, reinvestment and funding sources data.
- Generation of feedback by TRs and its subsequent management by counterparties, namely in the case of (i) rejection of reported data and (ii) reconciliation breaks.
- Provision of access to data to authorities by TRs.
The guidelines apply from the day following their publication on ESMA’s website or from the date on which the relevant provisions to the entities as determined by Article 33(2) SFTR apply, whichever date is later. The counterparties, entities responsible for reporting and the report submitting entities are encouraged to use them starting from the first day on which the relevant reporting obligation in accordance with Article 33(2)(a) SFTR becomes applicable.
