WHAT'S UP WITH THE LEGAL ENTITY IDENTIFIER?

It’s been a while since the need for recognizing legal organizations and their related entities has been identified. There have been a number of announcements on initiatives but little definitive movement on a coordinated global response to LEI.

Remember that it was difficult to determine their exposure of derivative trades especially for firms, like Lehman, that were facing a credit crisis. The initial drive for LEI was the Dodd Frank Act (DFA) and European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). Their focus was to reduce counter-party and systemic risk related to derivatives trading and settlement.

February 12^th was the date for SWAP trades to be processed with LEI. Problems were expected but the news about this event has been sparse.

What are your thoughts, good, bad or neutral, concerning global legal entity identifiers?

                        Are the regulators ready to respond to reported anomalies?

                                 Should a global identifier be extended to other assets?

SUPERVISORY COLLEGES FOR INTERNATIONAL CREDIT RATING AGENCIES

These organizations were established as a result of recommendations that the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) made in their final report published in July 2013.  Supervisory Colleges for International Credit Rating Agencies creates a mechanism for sharing and discussing information regarding:

• Compliance with local or regional laws and regulations
• Implementation of, and adherence to, the IOSCO Code of Conduct for CRA
• Establishment and operation of rating models

•  Methodologies, internal controls, procedures to manage conflicts of interest
• Procedures for handling material non-public information
• With the goal of promoting better understanding of the risks faced or posed by international CRA and how relevant supervisors are addressing these risks

One lesson learned, was that credit rating agencies face conflicts. The Supervisory Colleges are a creative approach to avoiding similar missteps.

The colleges for S&P and Moody’s will be chaired by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the college for Fitch will be chaired by the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA. The SEC

              What’s your opinion about the need for supervision of credit rating agencies?

     Is this an appropriate response?

What are the critical best practices for the CRA?