Preamble

Whereas:

1. (1)

   To increase efficiency and leverage similarities between the reporting of derivatives and the reporting of securities financing transactions ("SFTs"), the obligation to report the details of SFTs to trade repositories pursuant to Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2015/2365 should be aligned with the obligation to report derivative transactions to trade repositories pursuant to Article 9 of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The reporting requirements that specify the details of SFTs should therefore be similar to the reporting requirements that specify the details of derivative contracts.

2. (2)

   To ensure the efficiency and usefulness of reported information on SFTs, the specific details of the SFTs to be reported should be adapted to the different types of SFTs identified in Regulation (EU) 2015/2365. With regards to reporting margin lending transactions, the purpose of Regulation (EU) 2015/2365 is to capture transactions that serve the same purpose as repurchase transactions, buy-sell back transactions or securities lending transactions and therefore pose similar risks to financial stability by allowing the build-up of leverage, pro-cyclicality and interconnectedness in financial markets or by contributing to liquidity and maturity transformation. While margin lending therefore includes transactions subject to margin agreements between financial institutions and their clients where financial institutions provide prime brokerage services to their clients, it does not include other loans such as loans for corporate restructuring purposes which, despite the possibility of involving securities, do not contribute to the systemic risks addressed by Regulation (EU) 2015/2365.

3. (3)

   It is important that the details of any SFT cleared by a central counterparty are correctly reported and can be easily identified, irrespective of whether that SFT was cleared on the same date or on a later date than the date on which that SFT was concluded.

4. (4)

   To ensure comprehensive reporting where specific details of the collateral are not known on the day of the trade, counterparties should update information on the collateral as soon as that information becomes available to the counterparties, and no later than the working day following the value date of that SFT.

5. (5)

   To provide more useful information to the authorities that access the details of SFTs in trade repositories, counterparties should report to the trade repositories the International Securities Identification Number ("ISIN") of any collateral basket they use to provide collateral to an SFT, if that basket has an ISIN.

6. (6)

   Where counterparties provide collateral on a net exposure basis, resulting from the offsetting of a number of SFTs between two counterparties, a specific allocation of collateral to an individual SFT is often not possible, and hence the collateral allocation may not be known. In those situations, counterparties should be able to report collateral independently of the underlying loan.

7. (7)

   This Regulation is based on the draft regulatory technical standards submitted by the European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") to the Commission pursuant to the procedure in Article 10 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

8. (8)

   ESMA has conducted open public consultations on these draft regulatory technical standards, analysed the potential related costs and benefits and requested the opinion of the ESMA Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group established in accordance with Article 37 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010,