Commerzbank has chosen Regis-TR as its trade repository from the six that have been authorised by the regulator due to its European focus.

Regis-TR was one of the first four trade repositories authorised by The European Securities and Markets Authority last month to start reporting derivatives data in February alongside DTCC Derivatives Repository Ltd, owned by the US clearer, Krajowy Depozyt Papierów Wartosciowych in Poland and Unavista, owned by the London Stock Exchange Group.

ICE Trade Vault Europe and CME Trade Repository were also authorised at the end of November. Counterparties using an approved trade repository will meet their reporting obligations under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation.

Eugene Stanfield, head of OTC clearing at Commerzbank, told Markets Media: “This year we have been working with DTCC to meet our US reporting requirements under Dodd-Frank whilst in parallel we were able to progress with Regis-TR whose resources were able to focus on their European specific offering. We worked closely with our clients and Regis-TR who were able to provide us with detailed analysis and system access to allow us to test and complete in depth due diligence.”

Regis-TR is based in Luxembourg and jointly owned by the Spanish Stock Exchange’s Iberclear and Deutsche Börse’s Clearstream.

Commerzbank has a relationship with Clearstream through its joint TradeCycle product for OTC derivatives. TradeCycle was launched in September to offer a full trade cycle for both cleared and uncleared OTC derivatives, including execution, clearing, settlement, custody and collateral management.

David Retana, managing director of Regis-TR, said in a statement: “We are delighted that after a comprehensive evaluation process, Commerzbank has decided to work with Regis-TR. The combination of a comprehensive test environment available since November 2012, detailed technical documentation, a contractual framework and published fee schedule has been designed to provide robust planning assumptions for market participants as they implement their EMIR reporting solution.”

Retana told Markets Media last month that the firm had started testing in November last year and the number of clients had grown from 300 in July to more than 600 with about 15 joining every week. “Clients have increased since we received the license and we have signed more than 100 contracts including banks of significant size and central clearing counterparties,” he added.

Commerzbank has a large client base amongst the thousands of Mittelstadt companies in Germany, the small and medium-sized family-owned companies who will be reporting derivatives trades for the first time under Emir. Stanfield expects these clients to delegate reporting to Commerzbank. “For non-complex corporates who only have to report basic data on a counterparty and economics of a trade, it is a natural and simple process for us to report on their behalf,” he said.

Stanfield said that there will be challenges for financial companies in meeting the next reporting deadline in August on valuation and collateral. “There are still ongoing market discussions on the providing of the valuation, whether by the broker, client or clearing house and the impact this has on clients,” he added.