Esma guidance on swaps transparency still leaves questions

Volatile instrument attributes removed from transparency determination, but further issues remain

Fluctuating data: market participants confused by inclusion of two specific reference fields – strike price and fixed-rate leg

The European Securities and Markets Authority has clarified that firms do not need to track certain fast changing instrument attributes to determine which over-the-counter derivatives will be subject to new transparency requirements from January 2018, but market participants warn some other attributes could still be in the frame.

“This was more about industry requiring Esma to put in writing what Esma had been hinting for about a year. For me, this was never a practical issue – just an exercise