CFTC Go-live UPI Lessons Learned
Phase 2 of the CFTC rewrite went live on January 29th, 2024, becoming the first region (including SEC and Canada) to introduce the Unique Product Identifier (UPI) for OTC derivatives (minus Commodities for now). The UPI has been a long-standing objective of the regulators, to be able to aggregate reporting data across similar products and get a true sense of the scope, activity and risk of the markets in their jurisdictions.
Overall, the UPI go live has been an industry success with very high (over 90%) Ack rates at the Trade Repositories, but the go live was not without challenges, which will be explored here and hopefully will be a great guide to firms as they prepare for the EMIR Refit EU go live on April 29th, 2024.
Overcoming Challenges
Some of the key challenges can be categorized as follows:
1. ANNA-DSB Registration
Reporting firms were required to register with ANNA-DSB and obtain a license based on their expected trading and reporting activity, as well as whether they needed to create UPI’s. Numerous Non-SD reporting firms initially registered for the free (Registered) license or the ‘Search only API’ but then had to add an additional license (Infrequent or Standard, in some cases Power) to have the ability to create UPIs. During the testing phase, many of our clients believed UPIs particularly for Vanilla products would have already been created and even for some exotic products would have been available, as the assumption was that if they were trading with a SD, many of these products would have had UPIs created by the SDs.
2. Testing
Comprehensive testing is necessary to ensure a successful go live. One of the key issues that came up is the difference between the regulatory specifications and the data points required by ANNA DSB to be able to do the lookup/enrichment for UPI. This discrepancy created a longer testing cycle to ensure firms were able to properly source the data in their upstream systems, the correct mapping was done to the regulatory requirements and mapped correctly. Additionally, ANNA DSB product attributes required very specific enumerated values where some of the regulatory specifications allowed for free text.
3. Data Quality
During the go-live of UPI enrichment, Cappitech’s client Ack rates were in the high 90’s, which is on par with industry standards. However, the simultaneous requirement of sending UPIs for new trades and backloading/upgrading open trades over the same weekend posed a challenge for many firms.
Challenges with EMIR EU Refit
With the coming of EMIR EU Refit with compliance date April 29, 2024, there are various challenges to overcome. EMIR EU Refit introduces the new data element of UPI to existing International Securities Identification Number (ISIN). in addition to data elements for collateral, margin, and valuation, With the existence of both an ISIN and UPI field for product identification, it presents a challenge of sourcing these data points and when to correctly use them. ISINs are primarily required for transactions of derivatives made on a trading venue while UPIs are used in cases of OTC trades (for details mandatory use of ISIN and UPI see regulatory conditions and validation document).
There are also Refit clearing requirements: Financial Counterparties (FCs) and Non-Financial Counterparties (NFCs) who exceed the clearing thresholds on the day of entry into force of Refit will need to notify the relevant National Competent Authorities (NCAs ) and ESMA. NFCs that were not previously subject to the clearing obligation may become subject to it if they exceed the thresholds on the day of entry into force of Refit, and this requires monitoring expertise that Cappitech can provide.
Summary
Addressing these challenges requires a proactive and holistic approach to regulatory compliance, encompassing robust data management practices, ongoing monitoring of regulatory developments, and strategic investment in technology and thorough testing.
Cappitech provides regulatory reporting, best execution analysis and business intelligence solutions that meet the fast-evolving needs of the largest and most complex financial and non-financial institutions. Our cloud-based, cross-regulation, SaaS platform fully automates the reporting process and provides a comprehensive view on a single dashboard for global reporting.
Learn more about how Cappitech can help with your reporting, or contact us here
