European authorities will likely provide some leniency to firms providing trade and transaction reporting as part of MiFID II requirements, according to a panel of experts.
Speaking at The TRADE’s MiFID II Checklist event in London yesterday the panel debated the possible consequences of over reporting and inaccurate reporting, informing delegates regulators understand the difficult task ahead for firms.
“Speaking to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), we have mentioned real-time reporting is new for the industry and for non-equity instruments. There are of course going to be inaccurate records within that 15-minute timeframe,” said Liz Carter, managing director of trade reporting and clearing strategy at Tradeweb.
“ESMA understands that will happen and they are ok with it. If you are demonstrating you are attempting to be compliant then there will be some leniency on the trade reporting side. Although to be clear, if you are trying to swerve your obligations then there will be penalties,” she added.
Per Loven, commercial director at TRADEcho, agreed with Carter and told delegates this is also his understanding of the enforcement of reporting under MiFID II.
“Nobody expects this to be perfect come 3 January next year. The point is best efforts count and if firms do as much as much as they can then other aspects of the requirements will begin to work themselves out,” he said.
Matthew Luff, MiFID II consultant at Janus Henderson Global Investors, added buy-side firms will do their best to keep reports as accurate as possible, but there will be instances where mistakes are made.