28 April, 2025
Working Group Updates 4/28/2025
28 April, 2025
- SLATE Working Group. FIF hosted three calls this past week for the Securities Lending Transparency (SLATE) Working Group. The Working Group continued its review and discussion of a draft letter to the SEC and FINRA relating to the implementation of SLATE. The Working Group discussed reporting for loans that involve pooled collateral, FINRA’s validation of the FINRALoanID for modifications, whether fees and rebates should be reported as positive or negative numbers, reporting modification and termination fees, reporting for loans novated to the OCC, and cross-border scenarios.
- Short Interest Reporting. FIF hosted a call for the Short Sales / Reg SHO / Short Reporting Working Group to review a draft comment letter to recommend changes to short interest reporting. The comment letter is in response to FINRA Regulatory Notice 25-04 (FINRA Launches Broad Review to Modernize Rules Regarding Member Firms and Associated Persons).
- Direct Reporting for Muni Trades. FIF has created a subgroup to discuss direct reporting of muni trades to the MSRB. The subgroup members requested that FIF draft a letter to the MSRB to recommend that firms have the option to report trades directly to the MSRB RTRS as opposed to reporting trades through the RTTM trade-matching system operated by FICC.
- SEC Transition Working Group. The SEC Transition Working Group discussed a revised draft letter to the SEC Commissioners that identifies current implementation issues for the SEC to address. The Working Group discussed next steps with the SEC.
- Front Office Committee. The Front Office Committee reviewed applicable updates and notices from the SEC, FINRA, FINRA CAT and the equity and option exchanges.
- CAT Transaction Reporting Working Group. The CAT Transaction Reporting Working Group discussed revised draft comments to FINRA CAT relating to the fee dispute resolution process. FIF submitted these comments to FINRA CAT. The Working Group continued its discussion of FAQ B24 relating to the STP handlingInstructions value. The Working Group discussed questions from an FIF member relating to the reporting of the BFMM flag. The Working Group reviewed the most recent updates to the CAT Reporting Scenarios document. FIF members provided an update to the full Working Group on a discussion with FINRA CAT representatives relating to automatic logout functionality for the CAT portals.
Eduard Kotlyar