Banking and securities regulators are cooperating to monitor the big six banks’ compliance with new derivatives data reporting requirements that are being adopted as part of the global effort to step up oversight of the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets.
Canada’s largest securities regulator, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), has established an arrangement with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), the federal banking regulator, for the big six banks to report certain information about their derivatives activity to OSFI, which will, in turn, pass it along to the OSC.
The cooperative arrangement was announced Thursday in a notice published by the OSC.
The notice includes a letter that details the OSC’s agreement with OSFI, and it indicates that the regulators, “intend to work cooperatively to monitor compliance by the Canadian banks” with their reporting requirements.
The arrangement reflects exemptive relief that the OSC granted last year to each of the big banks — CIBC, Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal, National Bank, TD Bank, and Bank of Nova Scotia — from their obligations to report certain counterparty data under the new trade repository reporting requirements that came into effect on Oct. 31, 2014.
That relief addressed concerns that complying with certain requirements under securities law could cause the banks to breach laws in other countries that restrict the disclosure of certain information relating to derivatives trades or the counterparties themselves, and that the banks may not have access to certain information about their counterparties.
The relief was granted subject to certain conditions, including that the banks report to regulators about their efforts to collect the required information about their counterparties.