Kaizen Reporting (Kaizen), the specialist regulatory reporting firm, has announced it is extending its award-winning assurance service, ReportShield™, to cover MiFIR trade reporting. Under MiFID II, investment firms are required to report on both trades and transactions.
Trade reporting improves the near to real-time trade transparency information published to potential investors. Financial details of trades are reported to an Approved Publication Arrangement (APA) for dissemination to the market. In transaction reporting trade details must be reported in T+1 to an Approved Reporting Mechanism (ARM) which validates the data before sending the reports to regulators.
Kaizen has hired Chris Machin, who was instrumental in the development of the MiFIR real-time reporting solution TRADEcho, to help develop its new testing service. With a background in global banking (including at UBS and Credit Suisse), operations and client services, Machin brings significant subject-matter expertise on major regulatory regimes including MiFIR, CSDR, SFTR, MAR, EMIR and Dodd-Frank. He was most recently Head of Client Support at Simplitium, where he partnered with the London Stock Exchange to help build the APA TRADEcho.
Ian Rennie, Managing Director of Kaizen, said: “With both the buy- and sell-side financial firms now turning their attention to the quality of the data published in the real-time reports through APAs, trade reporting is an important focus for our clients and exactly where Kaizen’s strengths of quality, accuracy and transparency will pay dividends.”
He added: “We are delighted to have Chris leading the development of our testing service for MiFIR trade reporting. Chris previously played a prominent role in the planning, development and go-live at one of the main APAs. His expertise will enable us to quickly meet the increasing demand from clients and regulators for accurate and complete MiFIR trade reports.”
Machin’s move to Kaizen adds to the company’s growing list of regulatory experts. Earlier this year the regulatory technology firm hired former regulator and EMIR and MiFIR expert David Nowell, and the former head of the ICMA Taskforce on SFTR, Jonathan Lee. Already providing peace of mind to clients with its market-leading assurance services for EMIR, MIFID II transaction reporting, Dodd Frank and SFTR, the new MiFID II trade reporting testing service will provide additional confidence to clients that they are meeting their reporting obligations.
Chris Machin commented: “Kaizen are pioneers in their approach to regulatory reporting assurance and I’m delighted to be joining such a forward-thinking company dedicated to giving clients peace of mind in their reporting data quality. Trade reporting is a key part of MiFID II’s aims to improve price transparency in the financial markets and I am confident that clients will quickly benefit from the new service.”
Kaizen’s ReportShield assurance service is a set of four controls that test for the accuracy and completeness of regulatory reports, something mandated under MiFIR. Kaizen’s testing services are unique in their comprehensiveness, delivering full visibility of reporting quality.