EMIR’s trade reporting obligations come into effect on 12 February and counterparties to derivative transactions are currently scrambling to ensure they have all the appropriate systems in place to ensure compliance. For large financial institutions, this has already involved many months of hard work and, even still, many are not optimistic about meeting next month’s deadline. At the other end of the spectrum, the administrative burden on one-off or low volume commercial counterparties should be relatively light, and ensuring that the reporting obligations are covered not therefore too taxing.

What then of SPVs – which are neither operational goliaths like their derivative counterparties nor autonomous commercial entities capable of assessing the implications on cost, resources and time of each option open to them?

Well, the good news is that Article 9 of EMIR – which enshrines the trade reporting obligation – permits SPVs, like any other counterparty, to delegate their reporting function (but not its obligation) either to its bank counterparty or to a third party.

Our latest client alert explores all this in more depth, setting out in practical terms what steps SPVs should be taking now in order to ensure they comply with all their obligations.

So if you don’t yet know your pre-LEI from your LEI, your LOU from your GLEIS or your UTI from your UPI, we are here to help.