On August 21, 2014, the European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") published a letter from the OTC Derivatives Regulators Group ("ODRG") to the Financial Stability Board ("FSB") requesting the FSB to take steps to resolve the barriers to trade reporting that exist in many jurisdictions where market participants are subject to OTC derivative reporting obligations. The ODRG is made up of regulators from numerous jurisdictions including Europe, the US, Brazil, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Ontario and Switzerland. The impediments to reporting relate to data protection laws, blocking statutes, state secrecy laws and bank secrecy laws. The ODRG considers that the barriers are impeding effective supervision of reporting entities as well as the effectiveness of the reporting itself. Amendments to legislation may be needed in certain jurisdictions for the barriers to be properly removed. The ODRG believes that measures by the FSB, and possibly the G20, will be needed to ensure that the obstacles to reporting to trade repositories are removed timeously.
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