In the July 28, 2017 issue of The Risk Desk, John Sodergreen interviewed Division of Market Oversight Director Amir Zaidi on CFTC plans (see previous coverage) to improve swap data reporting regulations and policies.

Mr. Zaidi stated that the CFTC is soliciting comments from market participants on suggestions on timeline and implementation schedule, stop sequencing and anything else that the CFTC "might have missed" in developing its Division Roadmap. He said that there will also be opportunities to comment on more specific rule sets and data validations at a later time. For data validation, Mr. Zaidi stated, the CFTC "hope[s] to put out a proposal by the end of the year." Mr. Zaidi also said that the efforts of the CFTC towards international harmonization of swap data reporting requirements will be completed by the end of 2017.

Mr. Zaidi promised a tailored approach to data aggregation:

"The framework is in place, we need to be better at identifying which data we need and which data we don't need. Market participants and SDRs alike have told us about their frustrations with formatting and aggregation, so the issues are known to us now."

Mr. Sodergreen lauded the CFTC plans to address current swap data reporting requirements and cited the Division Roadmap as evidence of the seriousness of the effort. While acknowledging attempts to address such concerns by "two chairmen across seven years," Mr. Sodergreen argued that the CFTC had been "unprepared" to handle the significant challenges of managing data flows and the standardization of procedures and data fields associated with an effective swap data reporting regime.

Comments on the Division's review of swap data reporting requirements must be received by August 21, 2017.

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