Of course, access to data should always be in line with the authorities’ mandate and with the CPSS-IOSCO guidance, issued last month, on authorities’ access to trade repository data. However, even if this is warranted, privacy laws, blocking statutes and indemnification clauses which are in place in several jurisdictions restrict effective access to the detail of OTC derivatives transactions. Another important issue is whether authorities will be able to aggregate data across trade repositories and jurisdictions. Where there is more than one authorised repository in a single jurisdiction, it will be necessary to aggregate data across repositories. This in itself will be challenging. If no central entity is responsible for such aggregation, it could well mean that a plethora of public authorities with an interest in accessing data will need to conduct this task. This would hardly be efficient. It gets even more complicated if data, for example for all entities of a large financial group which is present in several markets, have to be aggregated across jurisdictions, as the level of information reported to repositories is different. A lot of work has already been done to address these issues. The January 2012 CPSSIOSCO report on OTC derivatives data and reporting and aggregation requirements identified the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) as an essential tool for aggregation. Good progress has been made in the development and implementation of the Global LEI System.

In an unprecedented act of international cooperation, the G20 leaders met in 2008 and 2009 in Washington, London and Pittsburgh to coordinate action and address the regulatory gap. As the crisis has shown, deregulation and reliance on self-regulation just do not work. In the area of OTC derivatives, the objective was to have all standardised OTC derivatives contracts traded on exchanges or electronic trading platforms and cleared through central counterparties by the end of 2012. OTC derivatives contracts were to be reported to trade repositories, and non-centrally cleared contracts subject to higher capital requirements. No doubt, a vast amount of technical work has been undertaken during the last four years, and substantial progress has been made in regulatory and supervisory reform in response to the financial crisis. Just to mention some examples: the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) issued, in 2012, new and more demanding international standards for payment, clearing and settlement systems and trade repositories, and have also recently published guidance on authorities’ access to data stored at trade repositories. The clearing and reporting obligation has been implemented in major jurisdictions. The CPSS and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) have issued guidance on the recovery and resolution of financial market infrastructures, including central counterparties. However, it should also be highlighted that little more than half the FSB jurisdictions have legislative frameworks in place that implement the G20 Pittsburgh commitments. Other important reforms are still underway or have only recently been adopted and implementation is outstanding.