Esma dithers over mandatory LEIs for repo collateral

The risk of no-trade lists due to SFTR hasn’t stimulated the uptake of LEIs outside Europe

Repo and securities lending participants are currently living with a veiled threat issued by the European Union’s markets regulator. If carried out, the threat would prevent traders from using securities collateral issued by entities that do not have legal entity identifier (LEI) codes, from April 13 this year.

In January 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority published forbearance that exempted market participants from submitting LEI codes for issuers in repo and securities