Catherine Talks, product head, SFTR, at UnaVista, discusses the turn-out of the SFTR go-live and whether COVID-19 has made an impact on the results
Image: Catherine Talks
SFTR is live. How has it been so far?
The SFTR go-live has been very positive. The industry has had a high acceptance rate with many firms achieving 100 percent acceptance rate within the trade repository (TR). Those firms that are seeing rejections are very actively engaged and resolving any of the issues creating the validation breaks at the trade repository.
The industry has been very engaged in the process which is apparent in the acceptance rates we are seeing.
Were all your clients / market participants ready?
We have reached out to those firms that we thought should be reporting and believe that everyone we identified as a phase one or two reporting firm is reporting correctly. This is very positive and has been a hugely successful exercise. We have not been made aware of firms that are not reporting.
Have any questions or concerns arisen since SFTR go-live?
There aren’t specific concerns that have been raised to the trade repository (TR), firms have been focussing on reviewing and resolving any validation breaks at the TR. It is likely that firms will begin to review the TR reconciliation processes and start to investigate and resolve breaks that they are seeing.
Has the pandemic created any problems throughout this process?
Initially after the outbreak of COVID-19 we saw a reduction in the firm’s testing in user acceptance testing. This was expected as firms started to establish what their working from home practices would entail, ensuring business continuity. Very quickly following this, we saw the amount of testing increase and firms getting into production ready states.
Did CME leaving the TR space create any issues?
The TRs have established processes for moving clients between repositories. CME have allowed plenty of time for firms to review different TR offerings and select a new repository and then undertake the portability processes. There has been some additional work to onboard firms as a result but the process is well established and the engagement from the TRs, CME and their clients has been really positive.
Describe what the matching rates have been like so far?
The matching rates were anticipated to be lower at go live due to the different phases of reporting (reports facing phase three and four firms will not pair until those firms start reporting). We are anticipating that those reporting in the phase one and two go-live in July will begin analysing the TR reconciliation statistics and working through any differences and breaks with their counterparts, which will lead to increasing pairing and matching in the future.
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Image: Catherine Talks 
