With the MiFID II deadline just two months away, Australian RegTech company APIR Systems has formed a partnership with the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
The partnership will help Australian financial services firms comply with new global compliance standards. APIR will act as LSE’s registered agent in Australia and South East Asia, with the company supporting the issuance and maintenance of legal entity identifiers (LEI).
Through the partnership, APIR can help its clients obtain an LEI, the required global standard providing improved transparency of financial transactions that cross jurisdictional borders. The process of acquiring an LEI is increasingly become more complex, with level 2 data requirements requesting mandatory information on an entities parent-child hierarchy.
APIR CEO Chris Donohoe said: “In 2015 APIR began issuing LEI’s and has now evolved that service by partnering with London Stock Exchange to leverage their technical expertise and global scale.”
“Although MiFID II is relatively new to Australian entities it does impact a broad range of financial services firms that transact with European counterparties, including funds, SMSFs and traders. The relationship with London Stock Exchange offers benefits for both our existing clients and the new client segments that will soon be impacted by these changes.”
There are still a large number of LEIs that need to be acquired before the go-live of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) reporting regime on 3 January 2018.
Industry estimates by the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation shows 250,000 entities still require LEIs ahead of 3 January 2018, when MiFID II takes effect.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has stated that firms should not trade with counterparties that do not have an LEI as they will not be able to submit valid transaction reports.
A number of financial services have stepped up their efforts to ready themselves for MiFID II in recent months. Hermes Investment Management recently partnered with RegTech startup Red Deer, selecting the company’s MiFID II research valuation management solution to manage its research inducement, consumption, valuation and budgeting requirements.
While London-based OSMO Partners partnered with Hedgd to launch a new full service approved reporting mechanism (ARM) offering to satisfy MiFID II Transaction Reporting obligations.
Copyright © 2017 FinTech Global
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
