SmartStream, a financial software provider, announced today that Nasdaq will be joining its Systematic Internaliser Registry (SIR) as an approved publication authority (APA). The Stock Exchange operator will be joining a number of other big names in the industry, including Bloomberg and Deutsche Boerse, who are already a part of the SIR.

The SIR is a result of a section of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II). The systematic internalizer regime, which will go live in September of this year, mandates that industry participants identify whether trading counterparties are systematic internalizers (SIs) for the financial instrument they are trading so that they can determine which counterparty must report the trade.

This requirement is difficult to adhere to for all parties involved. This is because MiFID II Regulation does not specify how data can be collected to determine which counterparty in a transaction should be doing the reporting.

Gathering data

SmartStream’s SIR aims to solve this problem by enabling firms to submit data, pertaining to the financial instruments they are trading, to a centralized database through their APA. Under MiFID II, investment firms, whether trading for their clients or on their own account, must publish the price, volume and time of the transactions they have made via an APA.

With over 60 SIs now providing their data to the SIR, SmartStream has a comprehensive set of data that will enable users to determine who the SI is in a given transaction. They will also be able to do this before a trade has been executed.

Commenting on his firm’s decision to join the SIR, Fredrik Ekstrom, Nasdaq’s Head of Nordic Fixed Income, said: "One of the key ambitions on MiFID II is to promote transparency and investor protection. The ability to provide markets with accurate and complete data, regardless of trading type, is an important component in this ambition, and one that Nasdaq is happy to support by joining the SI Registry."