U.S. securities regulators are stepping up surveillance of fixed-income markets with the implementation of new reporting requirements for Treasury trading.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced that it has adopted a new requirement for securities firms to report certain transactions in Treasury securities. The rule gives regulators a new tool to use in exercisingoversight of this critical market.
The new rule requires that FINRA members report secondary-market transactions in Treasury securities — except savings bonds — to its trade reporting and compliance engine (TRACE). The data collected will not be reported publicly, but it will be shared with other U.S. financial regulators.
“The Treasury market is the deepest, most liquid and most widely followed government-securities market in the world, and it is critical that regulators receive the data necessary to inform effective oversight of the market,” said Robert Cook, president and CEO of FINRA.
The effort to boost oversight of U.S. Treasury markets follows unexplained volatility in the market that occurred in 2014. That event prompted an investigation by a working group comprising several federal agencies, which called for increased data collection in these markets.
FINRA also noted that the implementation of the new requirements follows months of preparation and testing by the self-regulatory organization and its members. “Our existing TRACE utility has been ideally positioned to receive this important regulatory information in a manner that minimizes the incremental burden on member firms,” Cook said.