ISDA Opens Digital Regulatory Reporting to All

The International Swaps & Derivatives Association (ISDA) has launched the full open-source version of its Digital Regulatory Reporting (DRR) model and opened access to ISDA members and non-members to support compliance with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) amended swap data reporting rules.

The release follows the successful completion of an implementation and test with BNP Paribas announced earlier this month, used the DRR in a real-world, production-level environment to submit data required under the revised CFTC rules to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s swap data repository testing simulator.

The CFTC is the first regulator to amend its swap data reporting framework to incorporate new international data standards, with the initial round of changes due to come into effect on December 5. ISDA says the DRR, which is free to access, provides market participants with a mutualised industry interpretation of the rules in human-readable, machine-executable code that firms can use as the basis for implementation or to check their own interpretation of the rules is consistent with the peer-reviewed industry version.

With the DRR now available to market participants in full production, ISDA says work will continue in a test environment to develop new functionality and adapt the framework for forthcoming data reporting rule changes in Europe and Asia-Pacific. ISDA estimates that approximately 70% of the coded CFTC rules can be transferred directly to the DRR that is being developed for Europe, while 90% of the combined coded US and European rules could be applied for rule changes in Asia-Pacific.

The DRR initiative leverages ISDA’s Common Domain Model to transform a mutualised interpretation of the CFTC rule amendments into code, thereby reducing the inconsistencies that can emerge when each firm independently implements its own interpretation of the rules.

“We’re delighted to make DRR 1.0 freely available to all market participants,” says Scott O’Malia, chief executive of ISDA. “The DRR represents a big step forward in bringing greater efficiency to regulatory reporting by establishing a collaborative, peer-reviewed interpretation of the rules that firms can either use as the foundation of their build or to compare their reading of the rules with the industry view. This will result in better quality, more accurate and more consistent data reported to regulators.”