FCA updates on moving MiFID reference data system away from ESMA
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today provided details on how it is moving MiFID reference data and transparency systems away from ESMA as part of the MiFID onshoring process.
At the end of the transition period on 31 December, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) will switch off the FCA’s access to two key systems that are needed to operate the MiFID regime. That is why, the FCA has built equivalent systems for UK MiFID reporting – the FCA Financial Instruments Transparency System (FCA FITRS) and FCA Financial Instruments Reference Data System (FCA FIRDS).
Firms can currently use these systems for testing, however the FCA will be making both systems unavailable from 16 December 2020 until 2 January 2021 while it rebuilds the data. It will then re-launch them with refreshed data in production environments.
From 2 January, FCA FIRDS will contain all active ESMA instruments up to 31 December 2020, including:
- all instruments traded on a UK trading venue
- all instruments traded on an EU-27 trading venue, but not traded in the UK
FCA FITRS will publish all active ESMA FITRS instruments up to 31 December 2020, which were trading on a UK trading venue (ie the FCA will exclude instruments that were only traded in the EU-27). The scope of FCA FITRS is therefore different from FCA FIRDS. All classes and sub-classes of instruments available on ESMA FITRS will be published on FCA FITRS.
From 1 January, the UK regulator will be making (publishing from 2 January) transparency estimates as they fall due. In the case of equities, it will also make and publish (from 2 January) the first 4-week (FFWK) calculations as they fall due. Any FFWK calculations that fall due after 31 December 2020 will be made using UK data only.
For derivatives admitted to trading from 1 January 2021 onwards, the FCA will only publish estimates for the following sub-classes: equity, interest rate, commodity, FX and securitisation.