Over-the-Counter Derivatives in a Global Financial Marketplace: The Case for Uniform Global Identifiers and Compatible Reporting Requirements in Substituted Compliance Comparability Determinations

The 2008 financial crisis prompted a global regulatory overhaul of over-the-counter derivative markets. The Dodd-Frank Act mandated the CFTC and SEC to issue new rules and regulations to bring the majority of the OTC derivative market out of the dark on onto regulated exchanges. Similar action was taken in the European Union and other G20 nations. There has been a push to harmonize rules for OTC derivatives across jurisdictions to make the market more efficient and eliminate regulatory arbitrage. This Comment focuses on the process for a regulated entity in the US and EU to “substitute compliance” with its home country’s jurisdiction instead of complying with both sets of similar, but not identical, rules. This Comment specifically advocates for the use of uniform global identifiers in swap and security-based swap data reporting and explains the importance of uniform data when making substituted compliance comparability determinations