Today – six months after receiving approval from FINMA – the Swiss trade repository service provided by SIX Securities Services officially went live.

The vast majority of the large financial counterparties in Switzerland (classified as FC+), starting their reporting obligations in the first phase today, decided in favor of the SIX Securities Services solution and are set up in the system.

In accordance with the Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FMIA; in German ‘Finanzmarktinfrastrukturgesetz’ FinfraG), all companies with a registered office in Switzerland are obliged to report derivative transactions to an authorized trade repository. In response to client demand, SIX Securities Services today launched its FINMA-accredited central trade repository for the reporting of OTC and exchange-traded derivative (ETD) transactions under FMIA. As of today, in accordance with the FMIA deadline, the system is officially up and running.

During the last six months, SIX Securities Services worked closely with banks to ensure an orderly and seamless onboarding process and overcome technical challenges in a timely manner.

According to Klaus Durrer, Head Regulatory Change Management Switzerland, UBS, “We are delighted with the support and the working relationship with SIX Securities Services in conjunction with the launch of this key market infrastructure for Switzerland. ”

According to Tomas Kindler, Head Financial Center Services and Member of the Management Committee, SIX Securities Services, “We are very pleased about the fact that our trade repository is the provider of choice when it comes to derivatives transaction reporting under FMIA. With most of the large Swiss financial counterparties active in the system, SIX Securities Services continues its effort to make the next onboarding phases for FC- and NFC+ clients as convenient as possible.”

Source: SIX Securities Services

Today REGIS-TR, The European Trade Repository, has launched its services in the Switzerland market, after the authorisation, by the national Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), as a foreign trade repository, granted in April 2017.

This service will allow participants to comply with their obligation to report under the Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FMIA), also known under the German name FinfraG (Finanzmarktinfrastrukturgesetz). The reporting has been developed in a phased-in approach, depending on the classification of the participants, so from 1 October a number of participants are already obliged to comply.

FinfraG came into force on 1 January 2016 and regulates:

–      the organization and the operation of financial market infrastructures, for example, stock exchanges and central counterparties;

–      the trading of derivatives;

–      the conduct of business rules, for example, insider trading and market manipulation, shareholding disclosures and public takeovers offers

This regulation aims to increase transparency in the Swiss OTC derivatives market and to mitigate systemic, counterparty and operational risks. The objective is to align the Swiss regulatory framework with international standards, in particular with the EU regulations (MiFID, MiFIR, EMIR and CSDR) with a view to preserving Switzerland’s global competitiveness, enhancing market integrity and oversight.

“We are now the first and only foreign trade repository in Switzerland. This is an important step forward for the Swiss market and the European market. By using REGIS-TR for both EMIR and FinfraG reporting, clients will benefit from our strong expertise in the regulatory reporting environment, and enjoy operational efficiencies of scale, including one single relationship to manage, the same inbound and outbound connectivity channels and a transparent and easily understandable fee schedule” said Irene Mermigidis, Managing Director at REGIS-TR.

REGIS-TR already provides regulatory reporting services to more than 1,500 market participants across Europe and has confirmed its intention to cover the Securities Finance Transaction Reporting (SFTR).

Source: REGIS-TR