About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Relief Over SFTR Alignment Following Treasury Statement

Subscribe to our newsletter

The UK Treasury released a statement last week confirming plans to align post-Brexit legislation with the EU’s Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR), the first phase reporting requirements of which are due to come into force in July, 2020 (delayed from the original 13 April deadline to to COVID-19 pressures).

The regulation requires firms to report securities financing transactions (SFTs) to a recognised trading repository. It brings with it a mammoth reporting task for firms in scope – from daily margin-lending transactions to disclosure obligations and collateral updates and valuations – making it one of the biggest data management challenges within the regulatory calendar.

The Treasury previously made The Trade Repositories (Amendment and Transitional Provision) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018, helping enable Trade Repositories to be registered to operate in the UK post-Transition Period in relation to functions established by the European Market Infrastructure Regulation.

On 30 April, it committed to bringing forward similar legislation before the end of the Transition Period, allowing Trade Repositories to register with the FCA or apply in advance to operate in the UK immediately following the UK’s formal departure from the EU, under a UK SFTR regime, in a move that has brought relief to an industry currently grappling with multiple uncertainties.  

“What would happen if, in the event of not aligning to SFTR, there is no obligation for a UK issuer to provide an LEI? If the issuer is following different rules the LEI could go missing as there would be no legal obligation to provide it. Getting hold of this insight would require shifting through a huge amount of complex data just to work out who the owner is of the information,” asks Heiko Stuber, Senior Product Manager at SIX Group, operator of Switzerland’s principle stock exchange, speaking to RegTech Insight.

“Given the longstanding reporting shortcomings in the securities market, it is easy to see why the UK wants to deploy SFTR rules post the transition period. SFTR is the crucial missing piece in a complex regulatory jigsaw market participants have been piecing together since 2008. It would, therefore, be slightly odd if Europe’s biggest financial centre was not aligned to the regime.”

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: Detecting and preventing market abuse

Market abuse – unlawful disclosure of inside information, insider trading, circular trading, “pump and dump” schemes, etc. – poses significant threats to the integrity of capital markets. In 2024, global trading house Trafigura agreed to pay a $55 million fine to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for trading with non-public information, manipulating a...

BLOG

Financial Services Regulation and Compliance: Five Trends for 2025

Matt Lonsdale, Director – Consulting, Davies 2025 is going to bring some big changes to financial services firms, in terms of regulation and compliance. Here are our top five trends to look out for: Consumer Duty – a continued focus Consumer Duty was a dominant topic for many firms in 2024 and it’s here to...

EVENT

Buy AND Build: The Future of Capital Markets Technology

Buy AND Build: The Future of Capital Markets Technology London examines the latest changes and innovations in trading technology and explores how technology is being deployed to create an edge in sell side and buy side capital markets financial institutions.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...