A decision by ESMA now makes 13 July, rather than previously scheduled 13 April, the start date for national securities watchdogs to “prioritise supervisory actions” around the implementation of SFTR.

The new mandate for various market participants to report securities financing transactions to certain “TRs”, trade repositories, serves to make the scene more transparent. Yet the coronavirus crisis is challenging implementation schedules on many fronts – and after a recent appeal by trade organisations ICMA and ISLA, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is now declaring a three-months postponent of the acual go-live. 

“ESMA expects TRs to be registered sufficiently ahead of the next phase of the reporting regime, i.e. 13 July 2020, for credit institutions, investment firms, CCPs and CSDs and relevant third-country entities to start reporting as of this date,” writes the EU regulatory arm. 

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Curiously, in case anybody would want to start reporting on the original start date of the regime, ESMA admits that it will not be ready yet to record details of securities financing transactions anyway.