DATA REPORTING SERVICES [S.L.345.21 1
SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 345.21
DATA REPORTING SERVICES REGULATIONS
3rd January, 2018
LEGAL NOTICE 391 of 2017, as amende d by Legal Notice 136 of 2022.
Title, scope.
Amended by:
L.N. 136 of 2022.1. (1) The title of these regulations is the Data
Reporting Services Regulations.
(2) The purpose of these regulations is to implement points
34, 35, 36, 36a of Article 2(1) and Article 27c of MiFIR and Ar ticle
22 of MiFID.
Definitions.
Amended by:L.N. 136 of 2022.2. (1) In these regulations unless the context
otherwise requires:
Cap. 345. 
Cap. 370 "the Acts" means the Financial Markets Act and the
Investment Services Act;
"APA" means a person authorised under MiFIR to provide the
service of publishing trade reports on behalf of investment fir ms
pursuant to Articles 20 and 21 of MiFIR; 
 "approved reporting mechanis m" or "ARM" means a person
authorised under MiFIR to provide the service of reporting deta ils of
transactions to competent authorities or to ESMA on behalf ofinvestment firms;
"consolidated tape provider" or "CTP" means a person
authorised under MiFIR to provide the service of collecting tra de
reports for financial instruments  listed in Artic les 6, 7, 10, 12 and 13,
20 and 21 of MiFIR from regulated  markets, MTFs, OTFs and APAs
and consolidating them into a continuous electronic live data s tream
providing price and volume data  per financial instrument;
"data reporting services provider" means an APA, CTP or
ARM and a person referred to i n Article 27b(2) of MiFIR;
"ESMA " means the Europe an Securities and Markets
Authority established by Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of theEuropean Parliament and of the  Council of 24 November 2010;
"investment firm" means any pe rson, other than persons to
whom MiFID does not apply in terms of Article 2 of the saidDirective, whose regular occupatio n or business is the provisio n of
any one or more investment services to third parties on a profe ssional
basis;
 "MiFID" means Directive 2014/65/EU of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets infinancial instruments as amended from time to time and includes  any
implementing measures that may have been or may be issuedthereunder;
2 [S.L.345.20 DATA REPORTING SERVICES
 "MiFIR" means Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on market s
in financial instruments a s amended from time to time;
(2) Words and expressions used in the Acts shall, in these
regulations, have the same meaning as is assigned to them in th e
Acts. 
Competent 
authority.
Added by:L.N. 136 of 2022.
Cap. 330.2A.  (1) The Malta Financial Services Authority
established by the Malta Financial Services Authority Act shall  be the
designated competent authority in Malta responsible for theauthorisation and supervision of APAs and ARMs which have a
derogation in accordance with  Article 2(3) of MiFIR.
(2) The competent authority shall exercise all the functions,
obligations and powers and shall satisfy all the requirements i mposed
on competent authorities by MiFIR and MIFID. 
(3) Without prejudice to sub-regulation (2), the competent
authority may, for the better implementation of MiFIR, exercise  any
of the powers assigned to it under the Act in relation to perso ns acting
as data reporting services providers.
Authorisation procedures for dat a reporting services providers
Requirement for 
authorisation.
Substituted by:
L.N. 136 of 2022.3. (1) No person shall operate an APA, a CTP or an
ARM in or from Malta, or hold itself out to be or provide the s ervices
of an AP A, a CTP or an ARM, unless such person has received pri or
authorisation in accordance with Article 27b of MiFIR. 
(2) A person seeking to operate an APA or an ARM which
has a derogation in accordance with Article 2(3) of MiFIR in or  from
Malta shall require prior authoris ation for this purpose. The
authorisation shall be issued by the competent authority in ter ms of
these regulations and Article 27b of MiFIR.
(3) An application for authorisation to operate an APA or an
ARM which has a derogation in accordance with Article 2(3) ofMiFIR in terms of sub-regulation (2) shall be made to the compe tent
authority in writing and shall be accompanied by such documents  as
the competent authority may specify.
(4) An APA or an ARM which has a derogation in
accordance with Article 2(3) of MiFIR shall be authorised by th e
competent authority in terms of sub-regulation (2) where:
(a) the data reporting serv i c e s  p r o v i d e r  i s  a  l e g a l
person established in the Union; and
(b) the data reporting serv ices provider meets the
requirements laid down in Title IVa of MiFIR:
Provided that the competent authority shall not
DATA REPORTING SERVICES [S.L.345.21 3
issue an authorisation unless it is satisfied that the
applicant is in a position to comply with anyconditions for authorisation set out in Title IVa ofMiFIR which the competent authority may deem fitto impose.
(5) Notwithstanding the provisions of sub-regulation (2), the
competent authority shall allow an investment firm or a market
operator operating a trading venue to operate the data reportin g
services of an APA or an ARM which has a derogation inaccordance with Article 2(3) of MiFIR subject to the prior
verification of their compliance with the provisions of Title I Va of
MiFIR. This service shall be  included in their licence..
Withdrawal of 
authorisation.Substituted by:
L.N. 136 of 2022.4. The competent authority may withdraw the authorisation of
an APA or an ARM with a deroga tion in accordance with Article
2(3) of MIFIR, where such APA or ARM: 
(a) does not make use of the authorisation within twelve
months from the date when authorisation was granted,
expressly renounces the aut horisation or has provided
no services for the p receding six months;
(b) obtained the authorisati on by making false statements
or by any other irregular means;
(c) no longer meets the conditions under which it was
authorised; or
(d) has seriously and systematically infringed any
applicable provision set out in MiFIR. 
Power of 
competent court to make rules.
Substituted by:
L.N. 136 of 2022.5. For the better carrying out of the provisions of MiFIR and
of these regulations, the competent authority may, from time totime, issue and publish rules which shall be binding on all per sons
acting as data reporting services  providers. Such rules may lay
down additional requirements and conditions in relation to thes e
matters as the competent authority may consider appropriate,
including:
(a) the operation of Title VIa of MiFIR, any provision
dealing with data reporting services providers in
MiFID, or of these regulations;
(b) any matter relating to the functions, obligations and
powers of the competent authority under Title VIa of
MiFIR and any provision d ealing with data reporting
services providers in MiFID; and
(c) any other matter arising in connection with data
reporting services providers.
Applicability of 
Title IVa of MiFIR 
to data reporting services providers.
Substituted by:
L.N. 136 of 2022.6. The provisions of Title IVa of MiFIR shall apply to persons
acting as data reporting services providers in or from Malta an d
such persons shall exercise all the obligations and satisfy all  the
requirements imposed on such persons by the said provisions of
Title IVa of MiFIR.
MiFIR to prevail in 
case of any 
inconsistency.
Substituted by:L.N. 136 of 2022.7. Upon the coming into force of Title IVa of MiFIR, these
regulations shall be construed and applied in accordance therew ith
and, insofar as the provisions o f these regulations are inconsi stent
with the provisions of the said MiFIR, the provisions of MiFIRshall prevail and the provisions of these regulations shall not  apply
to the extent of the inconsistency. 
4 [S.L.345.20 DATA REPORTING SERVICES
Organisational 
requirements for 
APAs. 8. (1) An APA shall have adequate policies and
arrangements in place to make public the information required u nder
Articles 20 and 21 of MiFIR as close to real time as is technic ally
possible, on a reasonable commerc ial basis. The information sha ll be
made available free of charge 15 minutes after the APA has publ ished
it. 
(2) The APA must be able to efficiently and consistently
disseminate the information refe rred to in sub-regulation (1) i n a way
that ensures fast access to the information, on a non-discrimin atory
basis and in a format that facilitates the consolidation of theinformation with similar da ta from other sources. 
(3) The information made public by an APA in accordance
with sub-regulations (1) and (2) shall include, at least, the f ollowing
details: 
(a) the identifier of the  financial instrument; 
(b) the price at which the transaction was
concluded; 
(c) the volume of the transaction; 
(d) the time of the transaction; 
(e) the time the trans action was reported; 
(f) the price notation of the transaction;
(g) the code for the trading venue the transaction
was executed on, or where the transaction was executed via asystematic internaliser the code ‘SI’ or otherwise the code‘OTC’; 
(h) if applicable, an indicator that the transaction
was subject to specific conditions. 
(4) The APA shall operate and maintain effective
administrative arrangements des igned to prevent conflicts of in terest
with its clients. In particular, an APA who is also a market op erator or
investment firm shall treat all information collected in a non-discriminatory fashion and shall operate and maintain appropria te
arrangements to separate diff erent business functions. 
(5) The APA shall have sound s ecurity mechanisms in place
designed to guarantee the secur ity of the means of transfer of
information, minimise the risk of data corruption and unauthori sed
access and to prevent information leakage before publication. T he
APA shall maintain adequate resources and have back-up faciliti es in
place in order to offer and ma intain its services at all times.  
(6) The APA shall have systems in place that can effectively
DATA REPORTING SERVICES [S.L.345.21 5
check trade reports for complete ness, identify omissions and ob vious
errors and request re -transmission of any such erroneous report s. 
Organisational 
requirements for CTPs.9. (1) A CTP shall have adequate policies and
arrangements in place to collect the information made public inaccordance with Articles 6 and 20 of MiFIR, consolidate it into  a
continuous electronic data strea m and make the information avai lable
to the public as close to real time as is technically possible,  o n  a
reasonable commercial basis. 
(2) The information referred to in sub-regulation (1) shall
include, at least, the following details: 
(a) the identifier of the financial instrument; (b) the price at which the transaction was
concluded; 
(c) the volume of the transaction; 
(d) the time of the transaction; 
(e) the time the transaction was reported; (f) the price notation of the transaction; 
(g) the code for the trading venue the transaction
was executed on, or where the transaction was executed via asystematic internaliser the code ‘SI’ or otherwise the code‘OTC’; 
(h) where applicable, the fact that a computer
algorithm within the investment firm was responsible for theinvestment decision and the ex ecution of the transaction; 
(i) if applicable, an indicator that the transaction
was subject to specific conditions; 
(j) if the obligation to make public the information
referred to in Article 3(1) of M iFIR was waived in accordance
with point (a) or (b) of Article 4(1) of that Regulation, a fla g to
indicate which of those waivers the transaction was subject to.  
(3) The information referred to in sub-regulation (1) shall be
made available free of charge 15 minutes after the CTP has publ ished
it. The CTP shall be able to efficiently and consistently disse minate
such information in a way that en sures fast access to the infor mation,
on a non-discriminatory basis and in formats that are easilyaccessible and utilisable f or market participants. 
(4) A CTP shall have adequate policies and arrangements in
place to collect the information made public in accordance withArticles 10 and 21 of MiFIR, consolidate it into a continuouselectronic data stream and make f ollowing information available  to
the public as close to real time as is technically possible, on  a
6 [S.L.345.20 DATA REPORTING SERVICES
reasonable commercial basis including, at least, the following details:
(a) the identifier or identifying features of the
financial instrument;
(b) the price at which the transaction was
concluded; 
(c) the volume of the transaction; 
(d) the time of the transaction; (e) the time the trans action was reported; 
(f) the price notation of the transaction; 
(g) the code for the trading venue the transaction
was executed on, or where the transaction was executed via asystematic internaliser the code ‘SI’ or otherwise the code‘OTC’; 
(h) if applicable, an indicator that the transaction
was subject to specific conditions. 
(5) The information referred to in sub-regulation (4) shall be
made available free of charge 15 minutes after the CTP has publ ished
it. The CTP shall be able to efficiently and consistently disse minate
such information in a way that ensures fast access to the infor mation,
on a non-discriminatory basis and in generally accepted formats  that
are interoperable and easily accessible and utilisable for mark et
participants. 
(6) The CTP shall ensure that the data provided is
consolidated from all the regulated markets, MTFs, OTFs and APA s
and for the financial instruments as specified by regulatory te chnical
standards issued pursuant to  Article 65(8)(c) of MiFID. 
(7) The CTP shall operate and maintain effective
administrative arrangements desi gned to prevent conflicts of in terest.
In particular, a market operator or an APA, who also operate aconsolidated tape, shall treat all information collected in a n on-
discriminatory fashion and shall operate and maintain appropria te
arrangements to separate diff erent business functions. 
(8) The CTP shall have sound security mechanisms in place
designed to guarantee the secur ity of the means of transfer of
information and to minimise the risk of data corruption andunauthorised access. The CTP sha ll maintain adequate resources and
have back-up facilities in place in order to offer and maintain  its
services at all times. 
Organisational 
requirements for 
ARMs.10.  (1) An ARM shall have adequate policies and
arrangements in place to report the information required under
DATA REPORTING SERVICES [S.L.345.21 7
Article 26 of MiFIR as quickly as possible, and no later than t he close
of the working day following the day upon which the transaction  took
place. Such information shall be reported in accordance with th e
requirements laid down in  Article 26 of MiFIR. 
(2) An ARM shall operate and maintain effective
administrative arrangements designed to prevent conflicts of in terest
with its clients. In particular, an ARM that is also a market o perator
or investment firm shall treat all information collected in a n on-
discriminatory fashion and shall operate and maintain appropria te
arrangements to separate di fferent business functions. 
(3) An ARM shall have sound se curity mechanisms in place
designed to guarantee the security  and authentication of the me ans of
transfer of information, minimise the risk of data corruption a nd
unauthorised access a nd to prevent information leakage, maintai ning
the confidentiality of the data a t all times. The ARM shall mai ntain
adequate resources and have bac k-up facilities in place in orde r to
offer and maintain its  services at all times. 
(4) The ARM shall have systems in place that can
effectively check transaction re ports for completeness, identif y
omissions and obvious errors caused by the investment firm andwhere such error or omission occurs, to communicate details of the
error or omission to the investment firm and request re-transmi ssion
of any such erroneous reports.
(5) The ARM shall also have systems in place to enable the
ARM to detect errors or omissions  caused by the ARM itself and to
enable the ARM to correct and transmit, or re-transmit as the c ase
may be, correct and complete transaction reports to the compete nt
authority. 
Administrative 
Penalties, other administrative 
measures and 
Appeals.
L.N. 392.
L.N. 401.11. (1) Where a person falling within the scope of
these regulations fails to comply with any provisions of suchregulations or any rules issued  thereunder further implementing  such
regulations, the competent authority may, by notice in writing and
without recourse to a court hearing, impose on such person anadministrative penalty and other administrative measures inaccordance with the provisions of  the Financial Markets Act (Mi FID
and MiFIR Administrative Penaltie s, Measures and Investigatory
Powers) Regulations, 2017 or the Investment Services Act and
Banking Act (MiFID and MiFIR Administrative Penalties, Measuresand Investigatory Po wers) Regulations, 2017.