EU watchdog fines DTCC’s UK derivatives repository $484,418 – Reuters

LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) – The European Union’s securities watchdog said on Monday it has fined the UK-based trade repository arm of U.S. clearing house DTCC a total of 408,000 euros ($484,418) for “negligence” over a four-year period.

Data repositories were set up in the aftermath of the global financial crisis to improve transparency in markets by keeping a record of transactions for regulators to spot risky positions faster.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said DTCC’s London-based Derivatives Repository Plc (DDRL) gave certain asset managers access to data they were not entitled to receive.

It also failed to provide regulators with direct and immediate access to relevant data, ESMA said, adding the breaches occurred between 2014 and 2018, before Britain fully left the EU in December last year.

“The provision of timely, accurate and confidential data to CCP (central counterparty clearing houses) and derivatives markets supervisors is an essential requirement in facilitating the monitoring and identification of systemic risk in EU derivatives markets,” ESMA’s interim chair Anneli Tuominen said in a statement.

DTCC, which has a right of appeal, was not immediately available for comment. Before Brexit, DDRL had the largest market share among repositories in the EU.

$1 = 0.8422 euros Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Kirsten Donovan