The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has published a paper that outlines a number of key principles and initiatives for regulators, market participants and industry service providers in order to further improve regulatory transparency of derivatives activity.

The key principles are:

  • regulatory reporting requirements for derivatives transactions should be harmonised within and across borders;
  • policy-makers should embrace and adopt the use of standards – such as legal entity identifiers, unique trade identifiers, unique product identifiers and financial products markup language – to drive improved quality and consistency in meeting reporting requirements;
  • where global standards do not yet exist, market participants and regulators can collaborate and secure agreement on common solutions to improve consistency and cross-border harmonisation;
  • laws or regulations that prevent policy-makers from appropriately accessing and sharing data across borders must be amended or repealed; and
  • reporting progress should be benchmarked.

View ISDA outlines key principles for further improving regulatory transparency and derivatives trade reporting, 26 February 2015