Esma Launches Second Phase of Reference Database

The launch gives market participants access to FIRDS, which provides them with the reference data necessary to identify instruments that are in scope for compliance with the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid II) and the Market Abuse Regulation (Mar).

“The introduction of new data collection infrastructures like the Financial Instruments Reference Data System and the Access to Trade Repositories Project, luckily more easily referred to as FIRDS and Trace, will allow even more harmonised and efficient data collection,” said Esma chair Steven Maijoor in his keynote address at the regulator’s 2017 conference in Paris, The State of the European Financial Markets. “The delegation of these projects by national authorities to Esma also illustrates the desire for a more centralised EU approach and makes Esma a key part of the global financial markets infrastructure,” he said. 

Maijoor added that he believes Esma should increase its central role in developing EU databases. 

“Such a concept would allow for mutual access by EU and national authorities, and the public as necessary, which would in turn reduce duplication of data collection and processing by multiple authorities,” he said. “The recent commission proposals on the Esma regulation build on this concept by providing a role for Esma in relation to the collection and dissemination of transaction data directly from market participants to better identify and coordinate market abuses with significant cross-border effects.”

According to Esma, FIRDS allows market participants to prepare their reference data reporting requirements ahead of Jan. 3, 2018, when Mifid II and Mar come into force. The regulator has also published instructions on how to access the data and download machine-readable files. 

Specifically, the database assists in compliance with Mifid II’s Article 27, which requires trading venues and systematic internalizers to submit reference data for relevant financial instruments to national competent authorities (NCAs), who pass it to Esma for publication. Esma has warned that the data released may be incomplete and of limited quality, but along with the NCAs, it has committed to improving the published data’s quality and completeness. 

The first phase of FIRDS launched in July, when Esma began collecting financial instrument reference data from reporting entities.