Solution Providers' Trade Body APARMA Launches

APARMA was recently launched to represent the interests of companies who operate APAs (Approved Publication Arrangements) and ARMs (Approved Reporting Mechanisms) in the UK, EU and Switzerland.

Acting on behalf of its members, APARMA aims to provide guidance to regulators regarding the potential impact of regulations. Voicing issues and concerns on behalf of these solution providers ensures the continuity of services that APAs and ARMs provide to financial institutions.

David Bullen, who recently accepted the appointment as Secretary General of APARMA understands the balance.

APARMA’s task, under Bullen’s leadership, is to air potential downstream effects of regulatory change and bring these topics forward to the regulators for consideration. Timelines for implementation, jurisdictional variation in interpreting regulations, and cost requirements are some of the topics that are discussed between members and regulators.

APARMA is 'hitting the ground running' by highlighting issues with the recently proposed changes to two technical regulatory standards, RTS1 and RTS2 for post-trade transparency reporting within the MiFID regulatory regime. There is the potential that changes proposed by ESMA would become effective within a short timespan thereby placing APARMA members and the industry in a difficult position with too little time for implementation.

Bullen has over 30 years in working across the spectrum of Capital Markets ranging from Fixed Income and eCommerce to Wholesale Markets. Couple this background with his leadership roles across various Trade Bodies and Associations, and it is clear to see why David fits his new role at APARMA.

Operating a trade body does mean that there is a fair amount of dedication to the details. Take, for example, APARMA’s role in ensuring best practices are upheld across the industry when reporting price and quantity details of financial instruments in regulatory reports. Some aspects of ESMA’s recently proposed changes may differ from current accepted industry practice. Whilst this detail may seem small, it could have a significant impact on the data quality in the daily transaction reports and thus ultimately on the quality of data coming out of a future consolidated tape. Whilst APARMA certainly supports ESMA’s goal in ensuring data consistency, some of the changes as currently proposed could reduce rather than improve data quality.

As regulators calibrate existing regulations towards the goal of global haromonisation in data reporting, the importance of APARMA’s role will crystallize.

David Bullen - The APA & ARM Trade Association