We use transaction reports to detect and investigate suspected market abuse. Find out more about the submission of transaction reports and the data they should contain.
They may also be used for conduct supervision purposes and to support the work of other regulatory authorities such as the Bank of England.
Complete and accurate data is critical to transaction reporting. In order to be able to monitor for market abuse effectively, we need to receive complete and accurate information regarding the types of instruments, when and how they are traded and by whom. This is set in Article 26(1) of UK MiFIR which states that investment firms which execute transactions shall report complete and accurate details of such transactions.
Each transaction report includes, amongst other elements:
The Markets Reporting Team (MRT) is responsible for monitoring the quality of transaction reporting data. They are also responsible for specialist supervision of firms’ compliance with the transaction reporting provisions and for the formulation of transaction reporting policies and instrument reference data.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has developed guidelines on transaction reporting, order record keeping and clock synchronisation ('the Guidelines').
We expect firms and market participants to continue to apply the Guidelines to the extent that they remain relevant, and to sensibly and purposefully interpret them in light of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and the associated legislative changes that are being made to ensure the UK regulatory framework operates appropriately.
Under Article 26(7) of UK MiFIR transaction reports can only be submitted by:
All transaction reports must be made to us only once.
If your firm becomes aware of any error or omission in its transaction reports, including any failure to submit a transaction report, you must complete an errors and omissions notification using Connect.
Make sure the notification is completed in full, with all details necessary to allow us to review the error or omission. You can also attach supporting documents, eg external review results. All subsequent updates on an already submitted notification should be emailed via [email protected] quoting your submission reference number.
If your firm is registered for Connect and you require additional users, please refer to the Connect user management guide. If your firm is not yet registered to use Connect, please see the Connect registration pages.
Contact the Markets Reporting Team at [email protected] with any questions about transaction reporting errors and omissions notifications.
Under Article 26(7) of UK MiFIR, where errors or omissions are identified in transaction reports, the ARM, investment firm or trading venue reporting the transaction must cancel the report, correct the information, and submit a new corrected report to the FCA. Late and unreported transactions must be reported without further delay.
Please be aware that transaction reporting validation rule 269 states the trade date cannot be earlier than 5 years before the submission date. As such, from 3 January 2023 onwards, for transaction reports submitted with a trade date of greater than 5 years, the firm will receive a CON-281 rejection, meaning these transaction reports will not be accepted by the FCA and you will be unable to submit these reports.
Errors and omissions notifications should continue to contain details of when the error or omission first occurred and the number of transaction reports impacted, even if this extends beyond 5 years. Firms should then indicate how many of the impacted transaction reports will be remediated bearing in mind validation rule 269.
In relation to transaction reporting, order record keeping for trading venues and clock synchronisation, the following provisions apply.
Firms should understand the rules and guidance and how to apply it in practice:
ESMA recently issued a statement outlining planned changes to their transaction reporting validation rules in Q2 2022. The Financial Conduct Authority will not be changing the current rules used to validate transactions submitted to the Market Data Processor (MDP).
Entities that submit transaction reports directly to the MDP (Approved Reporting Mechanisms (ARMs), trading venues and investment firms submitting their own reports) may implement these additional and other validations should they wish to, where they feel this will improve the data quality of their submissions.
Market Watch newsletter
Our Market Watch newsletter looks at market abuse risk, transaction reporting, suspicious transaction and order reporting, and other market conduct issues. It can help regulated firms and other non-regulated market users understand more about these areas and relevant practices to consider.
Market Watch 74 highlights certain data quality issues identified by the Markets Reporting Team.
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