ICE to Launch European Trade Repository for European Swaps & Futures

IntercontinentalExchange, a leading operator of global markets and clearing houses, announced that it has applied to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to establish ICE Trade Vault Europe Limited (ICE Trade Vault Europe) as a Trade Repository (TR) for the reporting of Swaps and futures trade data to meet requirements of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).

ICE Trade Vault Europe plans to serve the commodities, credit, interest rate and foreign exchange asset classes. The launch of ICE Trade Vault Europe is subject to approval by ESMA.

"As the implementation stage for ESMA's technical standards approaches, market participants, from brokers to end users, will benefit from seamless functionality and compliance tools, which will help them comply with new reporting requirements through a well designed, easy to use and cost efficient solution," said David Peniket, Executive Director of ICE Trade Vault Europe.

In June 2012, ICE Trade Vault, LLC (ICE Trade Vault US) became the first Swap Data Repository (SDR) in the U.S. to receive provisional regulatory approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. ICE Trade Vault began accepting credit default swaps trade data in October 2012 and commodities trade data in February 2013. Since its inception, ICE Trade Vault US has accepted fifteen million trades.

"A common theme of international financial regulation is mandatory swap reporting and the creation of repositories. ICE is committed to providing its customers with a global repository solution," said Bruce Tupper, President of ICE Trade Vault, LLC.

ICE Trade Vault Europe will use ICE's proven repository technology for market participants to submit data and will connect to a range of institutions, including Clearing Houses, Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs) and Organised Trading Facilities (OTFs). Adopting ICE's repository technology will ensure minimum disruption for market participants who can continue to use their existing connectivity to report swaps and futures data in real-time. New European regulatory reporting requirements are anticipated to come into place once ESMA approves TR applicants.