Numbers from the UK indicate that the implementation of MiFIR transaction reporting at investment firms is going so-so.

Out of 3,784 British investment firms that are required to follow the transaction reporting requirements of the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR), 383 sent notifications that they had problems with doing so during 2018.

Small percentage, though

Financial advisory firm Duff & Phelps sums up the picture in a report, with numbers from Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This is noted by news site Asset Servicing Times.

Over 1,300 error and omission notifications regarding required MiFIR transactions reporting were sent to the FCA in 2018. While this is a large number, it can be seen in proportion to the full number of UK MiFIR transaction reports to the FCA: 6.9 billion.

Possibly many more

“I suspect the true number of firms with reporting errors is much higher. The data also shows that many firms notified the FCA on more than one occasion, suggesting that there could be systemic issues with some firms’ reporting processes,” says Nick Bayley, managing director of compliance and regulatory consulting at Duff & Phelps, according to Asset Servicing Times.

“It surely cannot be too much longer before the FCA starts to transition into ‘enforcement mode’, particularly for those firms failing to make a genuine effort to meet their regulatory requirements,” he adds.