Skip to Content

The regulatory reporting landscape in 2025

Harris Stevenson-Robb
30 Jan 2025

Slowing regulatory change: A critical window to rethink operations and technology

The past couple of years have seen an unprecedented amount of change in trade & transaction reporting (T&TR), driven by a wave of regulatory rewrites. Firms face a serious challenge managing these changes while addressing legacy issues from the original reporting regimes. When employees can’t address everything immediately, they often push the leftover work (“day-2” items) into their routine, “business-as-usual” processes, which can make managing day-to-day operations even harder.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The current storm of regulatory change is starting to slow down, and global derivative reporting requirements are substantially harmonising, presenting an opportunity for firms to evaluate their operating model and controls.

There are three key areas that firms should consider when refining their T&TR strategy going forward.

1. Leveraging managed services and selective offshoring / outsourcing

The use of managed services and the selective offshoring of business-as-usual processes, such as exception management and reconciliations, can bring significant benefits to firms if managed carefully. This approach can also enhance the end-client experience.

Additionally, outsourcing some components of regulatory reporting architecture – like eligibility checks and reconciliations – or even adopting wholesale outsourcing to regulatory reporting platforms, is another strategy that can streamline operations and improve efficiency.

2. Embracing automation and strengthening data integrity

Another critical focus is investing in automation and data lineage. Automating key operational processes, like auto-assignment of exceptions to the right action owners, provides a continual source of optimisation for firms. This is enabled by machine learning and AI that offer innovative and automated methods to enhance control frameworks and improve operational processes.

In addition to automation, firms should invest in data lineage tools and solutions. This enables them to track data objects from creation through to final submission. This capability allows for efficient investigation of issues and ensures compliance with regulatory reporting platforms.

Moreover, enforcing data quality across its lifecycle is just as important. From data producers to consumers, maintaining high standards of data integrity is key. Where appropriate,  implementing standardised data lakes can enhance data consistency and reliability, creating a more efficient foundation for compliance and reporting.

3. People and new regulatory considerations

Another important action is overcoming challenges in hiring and retaining skilled staff despite a continued skills and expertise shortage in trade & transaction reporting and execution remediation.

At the same time, new regulatory requirements, such as the need to self-report breaches and benchmark practices against industry peers, are adding to the operational burden. These challenges require a combination of strategic planning, operational enhancement, and expert input to manage effectively.

Strategies to overcome regulatory reporting challenges

Firms can address these challenges by considering the following approaches:

  • Bring in experienced professionals to your existing regulatory operations and technology teams, reducing attrition risk and maintaining continuity.
  • Allocate dedicated resources to address issue backlogs like remediation and back-reporting tasks, ensuring compliance without overburdening teams.
  • Enhance control frameworks such as exception management, data quality analysis, and reconciliations to focus on oversight only.
  • Seek partners and experts to shape and refine regulatory reporting operating models and align technology architecture with long-term regulatory requirements.
  • Apply industry insights and best practices to your workflow.

What’s next?

2024 brought the industry a packed calendar of regulatory change including; CFTC ISO 20022 and UPI introduction, JFSA Rewrite, EU and UK EMIR Refit, ASIC Rewrites and MAS Rewrites.  This cadence of change and harmonisation progress is unprecedented, and created many hurdles for firms to jump over through the course of the year.

Of course, if there is one constant in this industry, it is that nothing remains static. As such, it’s essential to stay on top with the latest solutions and technology that can simplify rewrites, refits and “day-2” items, while also keeping a close eye on the following recently implemented and upcoming changes.

Some of the most recent ones include:

What is it: Updated schema and validation rules diverging from the EU SFTR.
Timelines: Go live 4th November 2024

What is it: Reporting of eligible transactions on the non-centrally cleared bilateral repo (NCCBR) market.
Timelines: Go live 2nd December 2024

What is it: Inclusion of UTI, ISO 20022, UPI, Mandating reporting of CDE and Maintaining list of designated jurisdictions for masking relief.
Timelines: Go live 29th September 2025

What is it: Details are still to be published but inline with the global harmonisation project, the updates could well include inclusion of UPI and also updates to the current fields to match cross jurisdictional current requirements.
Timelines: Estimated Q4 2025

What is it: A new reporting requirement covering securities lending transactions in a timely manner similar to a streamlined version of SFTR.
Timelines: 2nd April 2026

What is it: Updated ITS of the current equity trade reporting in relation to fractional shares.
Timelines: Still TBD but FINRA have said that the effective dates will be no earlier than the first calendar quarter of 2025 and will be announced in a future notice.

What is it: Final amendments that harmonise over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives data reporting with global standards
Timelines: Go live 25th July 2025

Ready to transform your regulatory reporting?

Navigating the complexities of regulatory reporting can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. We can help you streamline your processes, enhance data integrity, and meet compliance requirements with confidence.

Meet our experts

Paul Grainger

Portfolio Manager

    No posts