However, our services go far beyond just providing a technical solution. If you choose EMIRate, you will receive a full service-package that allows you to also benefit from our comprehensive experience and knowledge regarding EMIR. If you select EMIRate, you will not have to invest precious time in struggling with all the details of the regulation and the respective challenges, and will be able to make better use of your own precious resources. Our dedicated team will take care of all this, with just a minimal support necessary from your side.

We already have over three years of experience with the EMIR reporting obligation and currently support more than 100 clients based in 15 different countries, including more than 35 clients in Norway, Sweden and Finland. These companies not only rely on our EMIRate reporting platform, but also receive full-service support in terms of the reported data as well as the regulatory requirements.

EMIRate not only ensures that their transactions are reported correctly but has also been ‘signed off’ on by various auditors in the course of their audits of company accounts.

The level of work involved for our clients in connection with the reporting obligation is reduced to a minimum, with the updates to take into account amendments to the regulation (and FinfraG is certain to entail some of these as well) not requiring our clients to make any changes.

EMIRate can be easily integrated in any system landscape in treasury departments, offering easily configurable interfaces and import options. Our clients use a broad variety of treasury management systems, among them CRM, SAP, Reval, FIS, IT2, only to name a few. With EMIRate, EMIR reporting can be a straight through-process if all features, including automated imports, are used.

“In the coming weeks ...” is what we have been hearing from Switzerland since early fall 2016 every time we want to know when the transaction registers will be announced. We are now getting close to the end of Q1 2017 and we still don’t know any more than we did in September 2016.

The timing of the announcement of the transaction registers is key to the start of the reporting obligation, 12 months later in the case of NFCs, for example, and therefore not before the beginning of Q2 2018.

We would like to remind you again that, whether intentional or simply overlooked, Swiss corporates will themselves have to report transactions with banks which are not based in Switzerland. The foreign banks won’t do this and we regard the hope that, for example, EMIR or Dodd Frank reporting on the part of a Swiss corporate will replace the need for them to report, while persistent, as a very unlikely scenario, at least in the foreseeable future.

The situation here is similar to that of FinfraG, i.e. due “in the coming weeks”. Only it isn’t happening. The fact is that EMIR in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway needs to be anchored in national legislation, as a result of which a number of necessary constitutional amendments in the relevant countries have led to further delays. As at March 2017, it remains unclear when, for example, the reporting obligation will come into effect in these countries.

The new regulatory technical standards published at the end of January 2017, and due to come into effect on November 1, 2017, contain several interesting details. Although these will hopefully contribute to improvements in terms of the so-called reconciliation rate, you will need to implement a number of changes in your systems which may not be very obvious.

Besides the minor changes in terms of additional asset classes and instrument types, a so-called CFI code will also have to be reported as a product classifier from November 1. In simple terms, these are six-digit codes which effectively explain the relevant instrument. An example: OPASPS = Options/Put/American/Stock/Physical/Standard.

When viewed more closely, this code also contains the information as to whether it relates to a call or a put option, a plain vanilla instrument or, for example, a barrier option, and whether the instrument is settled in cash or physically.

In terms of your EMIR reporting, this means that you also need to have these CFI codes (which, by the way, are some when supposed to be replaced by so-called UPIs) in your treasury management system.

You might be asking yourself where you can get hold of these CFIs. So far, there are only a handful of them. They are currently ‘work in progress’ and should be available by July 1, 2017. This is of course rather late, but the major prerequisite is that there is an additional list for these codes in your system. However, you also need to have the option of allocating these codes to the instruments actually traded, which will probably be a little more difficult if you trade in options or slightly more complicated products. Or do you already have a separate deal template for put and call options?

There are of course also several other changes given that a total of 50 new reporting fields have been added. If you want to know more, please get in touch with us. If you use a trading platform, now would be a good time to discuss CFIs with your provider/s.

If you are affected by EMIR, you probably already know that this regulation is currently being reviewed by a troika consisting of ESMA, the European Commission and the European Parliament. It is still not clear what EMIR II will entail for market players. What is less than helpful, however, is the fact that there is no end of speculation making the rounds, just as was the case before the introduction of EMIR. What is sure is that the deadline for backloading will be extended by two years, that there will be a net increase of 40 new fields for reporting, and that action will be taken which is intended to improve data quality.

Among other issues, the abovementioned speculation relates to the possible suspension of mandatory reporting in the case of group-internal transactions (NFC- with NFC-), although, from our point of view, it should not be assumed that the European Commission or European Parliament will implement initiatives which go beyond those outlined in the interim report issued by ESMA. But let’s see. At the moment, everything is still up in the air.

As far as the rollout of EMIR in the EEA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway is concerned, there is nothing new to report. The Norwegians have other problems and, given that the rollout in these three countries should be simultaneous, the other two countries are on hold. This at least indicates how seriously the contracts between the EU and the EEA partner countries should be taken.

Things are also still up in the air with regard to FinfraG. FinfraG? That’s right. FinfraG is Switzerland's equivalent of EMIR. Although long since enacted and in force, FINMA, as the competent and monitoring public authority, appears to be in no hurry to announce the trade repositories, despite the announcement of these having been scheduled for the fall. The fall of 2016, that is. The start date for mandatory reporting under FinfraG however is directly linked to the date upon which the trade repositories are announced.

Following the application of REGIS-TR to also become a trade repository in Switzerland, we will again cooperate with REGIS-TR in the same manner as for EMIR in order to also offer a solution for FinfraG.

Although no pricing models can yet be reported before the trade register has been officially approved by FINMA, we are nonetheless confident of being able to offer a very competitive package for Swiss corporates in terms of pricing and features.

We already have over two years of experience with the reporting obligation based on EMIR, the EU derivatives regulation, and currently support around 100 corporates based in 13 different countries, including several in Switzerland. These companies not only rely on our EMIRate reporting platform, but also receive full-service support in terms of the reported data as well as the regulatory requirements.

EMIRate not only ensures that their transactions are reported correctly but has also been ‘signed off’ on by various auditors in the course of their audits of company accounts.

The level of work involved for our clients in connection with the reporting obligation is reduced to a minimum, with the updates to take into account amendments to the regulation (and FinfraG is certain to entail some of these as well) not requiring our clients to make any changes.

As previously reported, EMIR has already submitted its first report to the European Commission. This report (available here) contains several proposed amendments relating, in particular, to the reporting of trades to trade repositories.

While many corporates may have hoped that the reporting obligation for group-internal transactions as well as the double-sided reporting obligation will be abolished, neither of these aspects is even mentioned in passing in the report. As the competent authority for implementation, ESMA definitely has no such plans. On the contrary, the proposals actually advocate additions in terms of the reporting fields, e.g. mandatory classification / the allocation of companies to specific industries.

The European Commission now has three months in which to issue a statement on this report. We assume that the proposals put forward by ESMA will need to be implemented as they stand. This would in effect at least partially predetermine the contents of the Level 3 Validation Rules.

Despite generally be referred to as an EU rule, EMIR actually applies to the entire EEA, i.e. to the EU Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The national parliaments of these latter countries need to legislate on the introduction of EMIR, which in some cases may have constitutional implications and/or make a constitutional amendment necessary.

With these processes currently ongoing, the dates on which EMIR will actually pass into national law in these three countries are still undefined.