WASHINGTON The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of Financial Research on Monday reached a deal on a joint project to collect data from registered swap repositories.
The memorandum of understanding will establish a process for assessing the quality of the data, according to the two agencies. The joint project is expected to lay the groundwork for future work that will permit regulators to understand swaps and other over-the-counter derivative transactions and their potential impact on financial stability.
"Today's agreement with OFR will enhance the CFTC's ability to see and analyze the data reported to SDRs and continue a critical dialogue on how the agency, given resource constraints, can leverage OFR's expertise and resources to protect the American public," said Mark Wetjen, acting CFTC chairman.
The joint project builds on the CFTC's work with swap data repositories to harmonize data reporting and improve data quality, data standards and over-the-counter derivative product taxonomies.
"At the OFR, we believe that fulfilling the promise of transparency in derivatives markets is vital," Richard Berner, OFR director said.
Separately, Wetjen and Berner announced the creation of an interagency, staff-level working group that will be used to help coordinate the project by focusing on data quality and using analytical tools for regulatory purposes.
