BIS Consults on Access to Trade Repository Data

On 11 April 2013, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a consultative report on “Authorities’ access to trade repository data”, drafted by the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

The objective of the report is to provide guidance to trade repositories (TRs) and authorities on access to over the counter derivatives transaction data.  It was produced primarily in response to:

• Recommendation 16 of the FSB’s “Implementing OTC Derivatives Market Reforms” document which requires regulators, central banks, supervisors and resolution authorities to have effective and practical access to the data collected by TRs;
• Principle 24, of the CPSS/IOSCO “Principles for financial market infrastructures” (PFMI) which states that a TR should have effective processes and procedures to provide data to relevant authorities in a timely and appropriate manner; and
• PFMI Responsibility E which requires that authorities should coordinate to ensure timely access to trade data recorded in a TR.

The report discusses the type of information an authority may legitimately request from a TR and includes a data access mapping table highlighting the minimum level of data access that authorities would typically require, based on the mandate(s) of the requesting authority.  Note that the table is drafted with the intention of reducing the discretion of TRs in assessing data requests from authorities and is not meant to act as a shield against which a TR can refuse to respond to legitimate requests for data which may happen to fall outside of the scope of the table.

The “typical” information forming the subject matter of a request is not restricted simply to trade data required for the purposes of monitoring compliance with mandatory trading and clearing requirements under Dodd-Frank and EMIR, but also applies to supervisory authorities concerned with:

• assessing systemic importance;
• monitoring and deterring market abuse;
• supervision of market participants (e.g. registration requirements or applicability of business conduct rules) and financial market infrastructures;
• facilitating the prudential supervision of firms;
• recovery and resolution planning;
• managing and implementing currency policy (e.g. monitoring liquidity and speculative activity in the currency in question); and
• acting as lender of last resort.

The report also suggests ways in which TRs can respond to “non-typical” requests for data from authorities (for example, where the request is motivated by a particular set of circumstances that require an unanticipated type or range of data, or are otherwise outside of the scope of data requests authorities are typically expected to make with respect to a particular mandate).  It also discusses ways in which procedural/legal constraints to the provision of TR data can be overcome and confidentiality concerns can be better managed.

The consultation closes on 10 May 2013.

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