The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has opened its SFTR production environment for pre-production testing to enable code, test production connectivity and submission of messages.
Until yesterday, SFTR was due to come into effect on 11 April, but now the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is requesting that market regulators turn a blind eye to non-compliance until 13 July.
The EU markets watchdog was forced to act to assuage the concerns of those in-scope for the first phase of SFTR that have seen major disruption to business continuity in recent weeks driven by the COVID-19 outbreak.
DTCC, however, says that clients are already able to set up end-of-day reports and view all their reported data and reconciliation results online via its SFTR portal.
Users can today put real live data through the system, thereby enabling them to start their daily operations ahead of schedule so the operations teams are fully up to speed on all the tasks required before the go-live, says DTCC.
The post-trade services provider’s executive director and European head of product development and change management, Mark Steadman, says that industry-wide testing is “critical” to achieving, adding that DTCC is committed to enabling clients to submit trade reports to a repository, manage the process and, if required, resubmit rejected reports.
“Being able to test in the same environment that firms will use in production before they start reporting removes this uncertainty and enables them to address any unforeseen issues ahead of the compliance date,” Steadman adds.
In response to ESMA’s call for a three-month reprieve on SFTR, DTCC’s managing director of product development and strategy, repository and derivatives services, Val Wotton, tells SLT that the firm supports the move to allow more time to achieve compliance.
“DTCC has been encouraged by the industry’s progress around SFTR preparations to date – evidenced by the testing which is currently underway; however, in light of the current circumstances, we support ESMA’s move to provide market participants with additional time to prepare,” he says. “We remain committed to assisting our clients in preparing for the new deadline and our Global Trade Repository SFTR service will be ready as and when the financial industry is required to go-live.”
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