FCA pares transaction reporting fields to cut burden

The Financial Conduct Authority has issued rules that reduce transaction reporting fields from 65 to 52, remove foreign exchange derivatives from reporting requirements, exclude about 7 million financial instruments traded only on EU venues from UK reports, and shorten the period for correcting historical reporting errors from five years to three. The rules take effect on 3 April 2028.

The regulator said the changes are intended to keep the high-quality data needed for market oversight while removing duplicative or low-value reports. The FCA estimates the package will save industry more than £100 million a year, including roughly £32 million from excluding instruments traded only on EU venues. The removal of foreign exchange derivatives is expected to reduce costs for more than 400 firms.

Under the revised requirements firms will submit 52 fields rather than 65 in transaction reports. The FCA uses those reports to detect market abuse, monitor market functioning and supervise firms. Shortening the error-correction window from five years to three will lower the number of resubmissions by about one third.

The regulator set the 3 April 2028 effective date to give firms time to update, test and implement reporting systems. The FCA said it will exercise supervisory flexibility to allow firms that are ready to adopt some changes earlier. It will continue to work with the Bank of England and the Treasury to align transaction and post-trade reporting rules.

Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, described transaction reports as “the backbone of our market oversight work” and added the streamlined approach will give firms cost relief while maintaining the accurate, high-quality data needed to fight financial crime and monitor market stability.

Regulated firms and trade reporting vendors will need to map the updated field set, amend reporting logic and update testing regimes ahead of the 2028 deadline. The shorter correction period is aimed at reducing costs and the data-management burden associated with historical reprocessing while preserving a window for fixing material errors.

Transaction reporting obligations were introduced to give regulators a detailed view of trading activity so they can detect suspicious behaviour and assess market functioning. The scope and complexity of reporting increased over time, prompting industry requests for simplification. The FCA’s changes remove items judged to provide limited oversight value while retaining reporting elements used for enforcement and supervision.