The TSI has responded to the ESMA consultation on a simplified private disclosure template in cooperation with its partners and stakeholders as well as with the German Banking Industry Committee (GBIC). We are very pleased that Leaseurope and Eurofinas have also joined our response, giving it even broader and Europe-wide support.
Good approach – shortcomings in realisation
ESMA had proposed an uniform template for private transactions with data at transaction level (see TSIkompakt of 17 February). We support this approach in principle. However, the ESMA proposal contains too many “if-then” provisions, which would lead to more rather than less effort and costs.
The core issues are:
- The proposed distinction between EU and non-EU transactions means that originators will have to adapt their systems to two reporting formats instead of one, as is currently the case. This leads to an increase in costs and higher barriers to market entry.
- The differentiation between EU and non-EU would further restrict the global competitiveness of EU-based issuers, banks and investors.
- The same applies to the requirement that loan level data must continue to be provided in the existing templates upon request. In addition, potential investors should not be able to get access to the data of the originating banks upon request, particularly in the case of ABCP or synthetic transactions.
- The proposed template contains new and overly extensive data requirements and is not harmonised with the SSM reporting.
Working group as proposed solution
Due to the points mentioned above, we have decided against commenting on the proposed data fields in detail; firstly, the basic objectives and application should be clearly defined. A simplification of the disclosure requirements necessarily includes the harmonisation of the various reporting requirements (in particular with SSM reporting) and the avoidance of additional data requirements, as the data points in the existing templates should be sufficient. Our proposal is therefore to form a working group consisting of members of ESMA, SSM, the European Commission and market participants. This working group could develop a template which combines all interests and harmonises the reporting formats – this is the only way to achieve a real reduction of red tape.