On March 3, 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) released a significant update to its Questions and Answers (Q&A) document regarding the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR). These updates aim to enhance data quality and ensure a common supervisory approach across the EU.
The centerpiece of this update is
ESMA_QA_2794, which focuses on lifecycle events for securities lending and borrowing transactions.
The main Subject Matter is updating the ‘Security or Commodity Price’ (Field 2.49) and ‘Loan Value’ (Field 2.56) fields.
ESMA clarifies that for securities lending and borrowing, these fields must be updated and reported whenever mark-to-market adjustments are agreed between counterparties. This ensures that the outstanding exposure reflected in the TR’s records remains accurate and aligned with the actual economic value of the collateral and the loan.
Beyond valuation updates, the regulator provided guidance on several operational aspects:
- Late Reporting of Events: ESMA has provided further instructions on how to handle the reporting of business events that were not duly submitted within the required deadlines.
- Trade Repository Record Management: Guidance was issued on how TRs should update the records of outstanding SFTs based on subsequent reports made by counterparties, ensuring the "state of the market" is correctly reflected.
- Financial Counterparty (FC) Responsibilities for NFC-: New clarifications regarding Article 4(3) of SFTR were introduced. This specifically addresses the operational aspects of FCs reporting on behalf of small non-financial counterparties (NFC-), aiming to streamline the flow of data for these entities.
You can access the full updated Q&A document on the ESMA website or download the specific guidance via the link below -
ESMA_QA_2794
Our support team is available to assist you with any questions regarding the implementation of these changes in your reporting workflow.
