Background: Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (“SFTR”) is a European regulation aimed at mitigating the risk of shadow banking. SFT's have been identified as being one of the central causes of the financial crisis and during and post crisis, regulators have struggled with anticipating the risks associated with securities financing. This led to the introduction of a reporting requirement for these SFTs.

Transactions that are reportable under SFTR: Repurchase agreements (repos), stock loans, margin loans, sell/buy-back transactions and collateral management transactions.

Whom do SFTR reporting obligations apply to: Reporting obligations normally apply to all clients established in the EU with the exception of natural persons. They apply to:

• Financial counterparties ("FC"): include investment firms, credit institutions, insurance and reinsurance undertakings, UCITS and UCITS management companies, Alternative Investment Fund managed by an AIFM authorised under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive ("AIFMD"), institutions for occupational retirement provision, central counterparties and central securities depositories.
• Non-Financial Counterparty ("NFC"): Undertakings established in the Union or in a third country that do not fall under the definition of financial counterparty.
• Small Non- Financial Counterparty ("NFC-"): A small non-financial counterparty is one which does not exceed the limits of at least two of three criteria: a balance sheet total of EUR 20m, net turnover of EUR 40m, and average number of 250 employees during the financial year. Under SFTR, small NFC's reporting obligations are automatically delegated to the financial counterparty with which they execute an SFT.

What must be reported?
The types of SFTs in scope of the requirements include:

Transaction level reporting:

• Securities and commodities lending / borrowing transactions
• Buy-sell backs / sell-buy backs
• Repo transactions

Position Level reporting:

• Margin lending

In-scope entities will be required to report details of an SFT which is in scope if that SFT:

• is concluded after the date on which the Regulatory Technical Standards apply to the entity
• has a remaining maturity of over 180 days on the date on which the RTS apply to the entity
• is an open / rolling transaction that has been outstanding for more than 180 days on the date on which the RTS apply to the entity

When must it be reported?
SFTR is a two-sided reporting requirement, with both collateral provider (borrower) and collateral receiver (lender) required to report their side of the SFT to an approved Trade Repository on trade date +1 (T+1).

All new SFTs, modifications of open SFT’s and terminations of existing SFTs must be reported daily. Collateral is reported on T+1 or value date +1 (S+1) dependent on the method of collateralisation used.

What do reports include?
Reporting will be done using a combination of 153 fields, depending on product and report type.

• 18 counterparty data fields - which includes information about the counterparty such as LEI and country of legal residence.
• 99 Transaction fields – which includes the loan and collateral data information on the type of SFT which has been involved in the transaction
• 20 Margin fields – which includes information on margin such as the portfolio code and currency.
• 18 Reuse fields – which includes cash reinvestment and funding source data

What must match between reports?
The SFTR reporting format includes 153 reportable fields, some of which must match between reports of the two counterparties. There will be two phases of the trade repositories’ reconciliation process, with the first phase consisting of 62 matching fields which are required for the initial SFTR implementation. A second phase, starting 2 years after the start of the reporting obligation, will contain another 34 fields which are required to match, bringing the total number of matching fields to 96.

In this context, it is particularly important that the globally unique transaction identifier - a UTI, be used and shared between the parties to the trade. The parties should agree who is to generate the UTI. If no such agreement is in place, the regulation describes a waterfall model for who would be the generating party. The generating party is obligated to share the UTI with the counterpart in an electronic format in a timely manner for both parties to be able to fulfil their T+1 reporting obligation.

INTERACTIVE BROKERS DELEGATED REPORTING SERVICE TO HELP MEET YOUR REPORTING OBLIGATIONS

FCs, NFCs and NFC-s must report details of their transactions to authorised Trade Repositories. This obligation can be discharged directly through a Trade Repository, or by delegating the operational aspects of reporting to the counterparty or a third party (who submits reports on their behalf).

As mentioned above, when executing an SFT with an FC, an NFC- does not have to submit relevant reports, as these are submitted by the FC on the NFC-‘s behalf.
However, NFC-s who do not execute SFTs with an FC are required to submit reports.
Depending on the different setups available, Interactive Brokers clients’ may not be executing an SFT with an FC, and therefore Interactive Brokers offers a delegated reporting service, to ensure its clients can report all SFTs they execute.

As mentioned above, SFTR reports submitted by the two counterparties of an SFT must contain the same UTI. To ensure this requirement is satisfied, Interactive Brokers suggests that all of its clients in scope delegate reporting to Interactive Brokers.
Interactive Brokers will take care of generating matching UTIs when submitting its own reports and those of its clients on whose behalf it submits reports.

Validating Explicit Permissions - The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) have introduced a mandate whereby trade repositories need to confirm a delegated reporting agreement is in place between the two parties before accepting and sending on any reports to the regulator. Due to this, the Trade Repository that Interactive Brokers works with - Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation ("DTCC"), has introduced a process to collect this information. As a client of Interactive Brokers, if you opt for delegated reporting, this mandate will apply.

DTCC will collect this information by sending clients an email asking for confirmation from the client that they have delegated their SFTR reporting to Interactive Brokers. – This will be a one-time process for each client. Once confirmed, DTCC will accept the reports and send them onto the regulator.

Securities Financing Transactions: Currently, Interactive Brokers clients can execute two types of SFTs: margin lending and stock loans. SFTR also requires reporting information on funding sources and collateral reuse.

Trade repository Interactive Brokers use: Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited will use the services of Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation ("DTCC") Trade Repository.

Timetable to report to Trade repositories: The reporting start date is 13 July 2020:
July 2020: Report Phase 1 – July 13 2020 reporting go-live for banks, investment firms & Credit Institutions and CCPs & CSDs
Oct 2020: Report Phase 2 - Insurance, UCITS, AIF & Pensions
Jan 2021: Report phase 3 - Reporting go-live for Non-Financial Companies

THIS INFORMATION IS GUIDANCE FOR INTERACTIVE BROKERS CLEARED CUSTOMERS ONLY.
NOTE: THE INFORMATION ABOVE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A COMPREHENSIVE OR EXHAUSTIVE NOR A DEFINITIVE INTERPRETATION OF THE REGULATION, BUT A SUMMARY OF ESMA'S SFTR REGULATION AND RESULTING TRADE REPOSITORY REPORTING OBLIGATIONS