The Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR) is a body of European legislation for the regulation of securities lending and repo. It was published in the EU Official Journal on 23 December 2018.
The regulation includes requirements to obtain consent from a counterparty before re-using its collateral, disclosure and reporting to trade repositories.
The objective of the legislation is to reduce systemic risk in securities lending and get more visibility over collateral re-use.
The Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR) is a body of legislation for securities lending markets. SFTR was introduced by the EU to implement the FSB’s policy framework for addressing shadow banking risks in securities lending and repo and increase transparency in these markets. [1]
The EU sought to increase the transparency of SFTs by requiring [2]
SFTR’s set of obligations were designed to take effect on a phased basis over a period of several years.
Funds engaged in SFTs and total return swaps have a detailed reporting requirement on these operations, both in the regular reports of funds and in pre-investment documents. [3]
Any EU financial or non-financial entity will be required to report. This includes banks, brokers, funds, insurance companies, pension funds, other financing companies and non-financial companies.
The European System of Central Banks, the Bank for International Settlements and public bodies managing public debt are exempted from reporting in order not to jeopardise their discretionary policies. [3]
To minimise the compliance burden for the industry, ESMA was asked to achieve consistency with the reporting already required under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) for derivatives.
The reports shall contain the composition of the collateral used in a SFT, whether that collateral is available for re-use and has been re-used, or whether any haircuts have been applied to it.
The rules are deployed in four phases:
To support firms’ implementation, ESMA produced draft guidelines, setting out guidance on how to fill the main field and including base scenarios. [5]
They cover seven aspects of the reporting requirements, including the number of reportable SFTs, how to link SFT collateral with SFT loans, or how to reconcile breaks or rejections between counterparties. [6]
The Regulation seeks to improve the transparency of the reuse (any pre-default use of collateral by the collateral taker for their own purposes) of financial instruments by setting minimum conditions to be met by the parties involved, including written agreement and prior consent. Clients or counterparties have to give their consent before reuse can take place and that they make that decision based on clear information on the risks that it might entail. [3]
In finance, a derivative is a contract that derives its value from the performance of an underlying entity. This underlying entity can be an asset, index, or interest rate, and is often simply called the underlying. Derivatives can be used for a number of purposes, including insuring against price movements (hedging), increasing exposure to price movements for speculation, or getting access to otherwise hard-to-trade assets or markets.
A repurchase agreement, also known as a repo, RP, or sale and repurchase agreement, is a form of short-term borrowing, mainly in government securities. The dealer sells the underlying security to investors and, by agreement between the two parties, buys them back shortly afterwards, usually the following day, at a slightly higher price.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is an American financial market infrastructure company that provides clearing, settlement and trade reporting services to financial market participants. It performs the exchange of securities on behalf of buyers and sellers and functions as a central securities depository by providing central custody of securities.
In finance, a contract for difference (CFD) is a legally binding agreement that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between two parties, typically described as "buyer" and "seller", stipulating that the buyer will pay to the seller the difference between the current value of an asset and its value at contract time. If the closing trade price is higher than the opening price, then the seller will pay the buyer the difference, and that will be the buyer's profit. The opposite is also true. That is, if the current asset price is lower at the exit price than the value at the contract's opening, then the seller, rather than the buyer, will benefit from the difference.
Prime brokerage is the generic term for a bundled package of services offered by investment banks, wealth management firms, and securities dealers to hedge funds which need the ability to borrow securities and cash in order to be able to invest on a netted basis and achieve an absolute return. The prime broker provides a centralized securities clearing facility for the hedge fund so the hedge fund's collateral requirements are netted across all deals handled by the prime broker. These two features are advantageous to their clients.
Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 2014, commonly known as MiFID 2, is a legal act of the European Union (EU). Together with Regulation No 600/2014 it provides a legal framework for securities markets, investment intermediaries, in addition to trading venues. The directive provides harmonised regulation for investment services of the member states of the European Economic Area — the EU member states plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Its main objectives are to increase competition and investor protection, as well as level the playing field for market participants in investment services. It repeals Directive 2004/39/EC.
T2S (TARGET2-Securities) is a European securities settlement engine which aims to offer centralised delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement in central bank funds across all European securities markets. It is important to take note of the fact that T2S is not a central securities depository (CSD), but a platform intended to enable CSDs to increase their competitiveness.
A central clearing counterparty (CCP), also referred to as a central counterparty, is a financial market infrastructure organization that takes on counterparty credit risk between parties to a transaction and provides clearing and settlement services for trades in foreign exchange, securities, options, and derivative contracts. CCPs are highly regulated institutions that specialize in managing counterparty credit risk.
The shadow banking system is a term for the collection of non-bank financial intermediaries (NBFIs) that legally provide services similar to traditional commercial banks but outside normal banking regulations. Examples of NBFIs include hedge funds, insurance firms, pawn shops, cashier's check issuers, check cashing locations, payday lending, currency exchanges, and microloan organizations. The phrase "shadow banking" is regarded by some as pejorative, and the term "market-based finance" has been proposed as an alternative.
Collateral has been used for hundreds of years to provide security against the possibility of payment default by the opposing party in a trade. Collateral management began in the 1980s, with Bankers Trust and Salomon Brothers taking collateral against credit exposure. There were no legal standards, and most calculations were performed manually on spreadsheets. Collateralisation of derivatives exposures became widespread in the early 1990s. Standardisation began in 1994 via the first ISDA documentation.
The interbank lending market is a market in which banks lend funds to one another for a specified term. Most interbank loans are for maturities of one week or less, the majority being overnight. Such loans are made at the interbank rate. A sharp decline in transaction volume in this market was a major contributing factor to the collapse of several financial institutions during the financial crisis of 2007–2008.
Basel III is the third Basel Accord, a framework that sets international standards for bank capital adequacy, stress testing, and liquidity requirements. Augmenting and superseding parts of the Basel II standards, it was developed in response to the deficiencies in financial regulation revealed by the financial crisis of 2007–08. It is intended to strengthen bank capital requirements by increasing minimum capital requirements, holdings of high quality liquid assets, and decreasing bank leverage.
Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive 2011 is a legal act of the European Union on the financial regulation of hedge funds, private equity, real estate funds, and other "Alternative Investment Fund Managers" (AIFMs) in the European Union. The Directive requires all covered AIFMs to obtain authorisation, and make various disclosures as a condition of operation. It followed the global financial crisis. Before, the alternative investment industry had not been regulated at EU level.
The European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) is an EU regulation aimed at reducing systemic counterparty and operational risk and thereby prevent future financial system collapses. Its focus is regulation of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories. It provides steer on reporting of derivative contracts, implementation of risk management standards and common rules for central counterparties and trade repositories.
Financial law is the law and regulation of the commercial banking, capital markets, insurance, derivatives and investment management sectors. Understanding financial law is crucial to appreciating the creation and formation of banking and financial regulation, as well as the legal framework for finance generally. Financial law forms a substantial portion of commercial law, and notably a substantial proportion of the global economy, and legal billables are dependent on sound and clear legal policy pertaining to financial transactions. Therefore financial law as the law for financial industries involves public and private law matters. Understanding the legal implications of transactions and structures such as an indemnity, or overdraft is crucial to appreciating their effect in financial transactions. This is the core of financial law. Thus, financial law draws a narrower distinction than commercial or corporate law by focusing primarily on financial transactions, the financial market, and its participants; for example, the sale of goods may be part of commercial law but is not financial law. Financial law may be understood as being formed of three overarching methods, or pillars of law formation and categorised into five transaction silos which form the various financial positions prevalent in finance.
European DataWarehouse (EDW) is a Securitisation Repository designated by both the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). European DataWarehouse GmbH is part of the ABS Loan Level Data initiative established by the European Central Bank that is engaged in providing data warehousing services and full disclosure for investors in asset-backed securities (ABS). It provides an open platform for users to access asset-backed security data.
On September 17, 2019, interest rates on overnight repurchase agreements, which are short-term loans between financial institutions, experienced a sudden and unexpected spike. A measure of the interest rate on overnight repos in the United States, the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), increased from 2.43 percent on September 16 to 5.25 percent on September 17. During the trading day, interest rates reached as high as 10 percent. The activity also affected the interest rates on unsecured loans between financial institutions, and the Effective Federal Funds Rate (EFFR), which serves as a measure for such interest rates, moved above its target range determined by the Federal Reserve.
The general notion of cryptocurrencies in Europe denotes the processes of legislative regulation, distribution, circulation, and storage of cryptocurrencies in Europe. In April 2023, the EU Parliament passed the Markets in Crypto Act (MiCA) unified legal framework for crypto-assets within the European Union.
Regulation of ESG rating in the European Union are proposed European Union regulations of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) rating activities' transparency and integrity to improve clarity in the EU's ESG rating processes. The regulations were first designed after 2020 and an amended draft was published in 2023.
