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The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has withdrawn the trade repository (TR) registration of NEX Abide Trade Repository AB (NATR) under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
NATR has operated as a TR under EMIR since November 2017 but will close its doors in November as part of its parent company CME’s plans to radically scale back its suite of regulatory reporting and repository offerings.
The withdrawal decision follows the official notification to ESMA by NATR of its intention to renounce its registration as a TR under the conditions set out in Article 71(1)(a) of EMIR.
EMIR provides that without prejudice to Article 73, ESMA shall withdraw the registration of a trade repository where the trade repository “expressly renounces the registration or has provided no services for the preceding six months”.
NATR was based in Sweden and covered several derivative asset classes, including commodities, credit, foreign exchange, equities and interest rates.
EMIR introduced provisions to improve transparency, establish common rules for central counterparties and for trade repositories and to reduce the risks associated with the over-the-counter derivatives market.
It also provides for the direct supervision and the registration of TRs by ESMA as well as the recognition of non-EU TRs.
In order to be registered as a TR a company must be able to demonstrate to ESMA that it can comply with the requirements of EMIR, including, most importantly, on operational reliability;
safeguarding and recording; and transparency and data availability.
NATR's registration brought the total number of TRs registered in the EU to eight TRs. ESMA has since updated its list of authorised trade repositories in the EU.
When the CME first revealed its plans to close its TR and regulatory reporting services in May, Cappitech CEO Ronen Kertis warned the closure of Abide services and NEX Regulatory Reporting will have a “far-reaching impact on the regulatory reporting community and industry at large”.
The decision to close is understood to have come after CME was unable to offload the subsidiaries for several months prior to initiating the termination process.
