Trax Gains APA Authorization for its MiFID II Solutions Suite

Regulatory reporting specialist Trax was today approved by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority as an Approved Publication Arrangement (APA). The authorization helps ramp up Trax’s effort to offer a compliant MiFID II solution, given its eventual implementation on January 3, 2017.

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The authorization also helps address key compliance measures with Trax Transparency Solution, and by extension the APA, being available on the Trax Insight platform. The Trax Insight platform presently includes a wide range of customizable, web-based operational tools. These help manage and monitor the status of reporting activity via a single interface.

Christophe Roupie, Head of Europe and Asia, MarketAxess and Trax, commented: “I’m thrilled that the FCA has granted Trax approval to become one of the first MiFID II APAs. Our expert team has worked diligently with market participants and regulators to help the industry analyse the impact of Regulation and ultimately build superior tools for our clients.”

“Our unique combination of both transparency and transaction reporting services as well as our substantial buy- and sell-side community sets the Trax offering apart from anything available in the market today," he added.

The approval as an APA by the FCA will be important in helping clients take advantage of Trax’s pre- and post-trade transparency solutions, including quote publication, Systematic Internaliser (SI) determination and instrument Liquidity classification. To date, Trax already operated as an Approved Reporting Mechanism (ARM) under MiFID I, with today’s approval helping expand its services suite.

“Trax has a long history of being at the forefront of improving operational efficiencies and reducing regulatory risk. To help firms better manage these risks, the Trax Insight system has been helping buy- and sell-side firms actively test their readiness for MiFID II trade and transaction reporting since November 2016, well ahead of the MiFID II implementation date of 3rd January 2018,” noted Geoffroy Vander Linden, Head of Transparency Solutions, Trax.

The approval mirrors that of other institutional venues which have gained authorization for their MiFID II solutions. The news comes with parallel authorizations granted for NEX Regulatory Reporting and Bloomberg. Venues are collectively seeking to strengthen their solutions suite while also setting up for a MiFID II-compliant ARM.