On January 31, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a public consultation (Consultation) on the future guidelines on the transfer of data between trade repositories (TRs) authorized in the European Union under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).

The proposed guidelines establish high-level principles that would need to be followed by various stakeholders such as the TR participants, reporting entities, counterparties and central counterparties, as well as the TRs themselves.

ESMA states that the purpose of the proposed guidelines is threefold; they aim to ensure that: (1) the competitive environment relating to TRs underpinning EMIR is guaranteed; (2) high-quality data is available to authorities; and (3) a consistent and harmonized method of transferring records from one TR to another is established to support the continuity of reporting and reconciliation.

ESMA is seeking stakeholders’ views on the draft guidelines by March 31 and expects to publish a final report of the guidelines by Q3 of 2017.