Last week, the European Commission adopted several level II texts relating to the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR). The rules require that transactions in repurchase agreements, securities lending/borrowing, commodities lending/borrowing, buy/sell back and “reuse” of collateral are reported to authorised Trade Repositories. The rules will apply to a wide range of entities, including non financial counterparties, and will impact some in energy and commodities.

After several delays, the adoptions allow the start dates of the rules to be broadly determined.  The exact dates will be known when the rules are published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The rules apply to Investment Firms and Credit Institutions 20 days and 12 months after publication, in Q2 2020. They will apply to Non Financial Counterparties 20 days and 21 months after publication, in Q1 2021. Many in energy and commodities will need to consider which transactions fall within the definition of the items to be reported, in particular “commodities lending”.

The adopted regulation can be found here, and the supporting  annex  with field details here.