EMIR Reporting Requirements: Counterparties, T+1 Deadline, and Fields

The European Market Infrastructure Regulation sets out the EMIR reporting requirements that apply to every counterparty concluding, modifying, or terminating a derivative contract in the EU. Each trade must be reported to a registered trade repository by the end of the working day following the event, using more than 200 standardized data fields in ISO 20022 XML format. Who does the reporting depends on how each side is classified. Since EMIR REFIT took effect on April 29, 2024, a financial counterparty trading with a small non-financial counterparty is solely responsible and legally liable for reporting both sides.

Who Has to Report

EMIR splits counterparties into two camps, and your camp determines both the scope of your obligations and whether you have to report for the other side of a trade.

Financial Counterparties

Financial Counterparties (FCs) include banks, investment firms, insurers, pension funds, and asset managers. FCs are divided into two tiers based on whether their aggregate OTC derivatives positions exceed the clearing thresholds. An FC whose positions stay below those thresholds is a “small” FC, or FC-. Small FCs are exempt from the clearing obligation but remain fully subject to reporting, margining, and other risk-mitigation requirements.¹

Non-Financial Counterparties

Non-Financial Counterparties (NFCs) are businesses that use derivatives but are not financial institutions. A corporate treasury hedging foreign-exchange exposure is a typical example. NFCs that exceed clearing thresholds are classified NFC+ and take on obligations comparable to a financial firm, including clearing for the asset classes where thresholds are breached. NFCs below the thresholds are NFC- and benefit from lighter treatment.

The clearing thresholds are measured in gross notional value:

Credit derivatives: €1 billion
Equity derivatives: €1 billion
Interest rate derivatives: €3 billion
Foreign exchange derivatives: €3 billion
Commodity derivatives and others: €4 billion

Breaching a threshold in one asset class triggers the clearing obligation only for that class. Failing to perform the threshold calculation at all makes the entity subject to clearing across every asset class where the obligation applies.¹

Who Reports When an FC Trades With an NFC-

One of the most consequential shifts under EMIR REFIT is the reporting responsibility for OTC trades between an FC and an NFC-. The FC is now solely responsible and legally liable for reporting on behalf of both sides. The NFC- must still provide the FC with trade details the FC could not reasonably be expected to have, and remains responsible for the accuracy of those details. An NFC- that has already invested in its own reporting infrastructure can choose to keep reporting itself, but must inform the FC of that decision beforehand.²

For trades between two FCs, or between two NFC+ entities, both sides must report independently unless one delegates to the other.

Which Derivatives Are Covered

Every derivative contract involving an EU-based counterparty is in scope, whether it is traded on a regulated exchange or negotiated privately over the counter.³ The five asset classes are credit, equity, interest rate, foreign exchange, and commodity derivatives. Size, duration, and underlying value are irrelevant to whether reporting is required. A five-year interest rate swap worth hundreds of millions of euros and a short-dated FX forward worth a fraction of that amount receive the same reporting treatment.

The T+1 Deadline

Reports must reach a registered trade repository no later than the end of the working day following the conclusion, modification, or termination of the contract. The T+1 rule applies to every lifecycle event, not just the initial trade. Amend a notional amount on Tuesday, and the updated report is due by close of business Wednesday. A missed deadline is a breach of Article 9.²

What Each Report Must Contain

EMIR REFIT expanded the reportable data fields from 129 to 203 in the EU. UK EMIR uses 204 fields, adding an optional execution-agent identifier. All reports must be submitted in ISO 20022 XML format, the same standard used for securities financing and MiFIR transaction reporting. Trade repositories reject any submission that fails the XML schema and must return rejection feedback, including specific error codes, within 60 minutes.⁴

Legal Entity Identifier

Every reporting entity needs a Legal Entity Identifier, a unique 20-character alphanumeric code issued by a Local Operating Unit accredited by the Global LEI Foundation.⁵ Fees vary by provider but typically run $50 to $75 per year. An LEI has to be renewed on time; a lapsed LEI means rejected reports, and this is where compliance quietly falls apart at smaller firms.

Unique Transaction Identifier and Unique Product Identifier

Each derivative is assigned a Unique Transaction Identifier (UTI) that stays with the contract for its entire lifecycle. Both sides must use the identical UTI, generated by one party following the ISO 23897 format: the generating entity’s LEI followed by up to 32 alphanumeric characters. Which party generates the UTI follows a waterfall set out in the regulation. A Unique Product Identifier (UPI), assigned under ISO 4914, classifies the type of derivative instrument so regulators can aggregate exposures consistently across the market.⁶

Economic Terms and Collateral

Each report must capture the contract’s core economic terms: notional amount, price, maturity date, execution timestamp, and settlement date. Counterparty data identifies both sides, including their LEIs and, where different, the beneficiary of the rights and obligations. Valuation fields capture the current market price. Collateral fields describe the assets securing the trade against default, including the collateral portfolio code.⁷ A rounded timestamp or a wrong currency code will create a reconciliation break that both counterparties then have to investigate.

Position-Level Reporting and Notification of Errors

Under EMIR REFIT, counterparties can report at the position level only when both sides have expressly agreed to it. Absent that bilateral agreement, reporting must happen at the individual trade level. REFIT also introduced a formal notification obligation: when a system flaw causes misreporting affecting a significant number of reports, or when an obstacle prevents timely submission, you must promptly notify your National Competent Authority. The same applies to significant reporting errors that would not trigger automatic rejection. ESMA has published calibration thresholds that define “significant number” based on average monthly submission volumes.

How to Submit

Reports go to a trade repository registered with ESMA, which maintains the register and supervises repositories directly.⁸ Firms choose a repository based on technical connectivity, XML schema support, fees, and rejection turnaround times.

There are two main routes. Direct reporting means establishing your own electronic connection to a repository and submitting XML files yourself; it offers full control at the cost of significant investment in systems and expertise. Delegated reporting, where a third-party service provider or the other counterparty submits on your behalf, is the more common choice for smaller firms. Delegation transfers the act, not the liability. The counterparty with the reporting obligation remains responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the data, even when a vendor makes the mistake.

Reconciliation

After both counterparties submit, the trade repository attempts to pair the reports using three fields: the UTI, Counterparty 1, and Counterparty 2. Paired reports are then reconciled by comparing the remaining fields.⁹ The repository flags each report as paired or unpaired, reconciled or not, with separate flags for valuation. Discrepancies produce rejections or warnings that both counterparties must investigate and correct without undue delay. Persistent breaks attract supervisory attention.

The Intragroup Exemption

EMIR provides an exemption from reporting for derivative contracts between entities within the same group, where at least one counterparty is a non-financial entity (or would qualify as one if established in the EU). Both counterparties must be included in the same consolidation on a full basis, both must be subject to appropriate centralized risk evaluation and control procedures, and the parent must not be an FC.²

The exemption does not apply automatically. You must notify your NCA of the intention to use it, and it becomes valid once the NCA confirms or three months pass without objection. Existing reported contracts then have to be closed out by submitting error-type reports to the trade repository. New intragroup derivatives entered into after the exemption date carry no reporting obligation at all.

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

Each EU member state sets its own penalty regime, but EMIR requires penalties to be effective, proportionate, and dissuasive, and to include at least administrative fines. For entities whose reports repeatedly contain systematic manifest errors, NCAs can impose periodic penalty payments capped at 1% of the entity’s average daily turnover for the preceding business year. These penalties run for every day the infringement continues, up to six months from the date specified in the authority’s decision.¹⁰

Member states retain the right to impose criminal penalties alongside administrative ones. Enforcement intensity varies across jurisdictions. Regardless of where you sit, the expectation is the same: remediate all identified errors and omissions, including those in historical and matured trades, and notify your NCA as soon as practicably possible when material issues appear.¹¹

UK EMIR for Cross-Border Trades

Since the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31, 2020, the UK has operated its own EMIR regime, supervised by the FCA and the Bank of England rather than ESMA. Trades entered into by UK counterparties must be reported to an FCA-registered or recognized trade repository.¹²

Firms active in both jurisdictions face dual obligations. A trade between an EU-based FC and a UK-based FC must be reported under EU EMIR to an ESMA-registered repository and under UK EMIR to an FCA-registered one. The regimes have diverged in detail: UK EMIR uses 204 fields to the EU’s 203, adding an optional execution-agent identifier. Third-country entities trading with UK counterparties may be exempt from UK EMIR reporting if the third country’s regime has been declared equivalent under Article 13 of UK EMIR and the trade has already been reported under that regime. Without an equivalence determination, the UK counterparty bears the obligation.¹²

What EMIR 3.0 Adds

EMIR 3.0, formally Regulation (EU) 2024/2987, entered into force on December 24, 2024. Its headline change is not a reporting change but a clearing one: an “active account requirement” aimed at reducing EU reliance on systemically important third-country central counterparties. Certain FCs and NFCs with exposures to clearing services of substantial systemic importance must hold at least one operational active account at an EU-based CCP and, in some cases, clear a representative number of trades through it.¹³

The requirement currently applies to OTC interest rate derivatives denominated in euro, OTC interest rate derivatives denominated in Polish zloty, and euro-denominated short-term interest rate derivatives. ESMA was mandated to draft the detailed regulatory technical standards by June 25, 2025, with an assessment of the requirement scheduled for June 2026.

1
European Securities and Markets Authority. Clearing Thresholds
2
The National Archives. Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 – Article 9 Reporting Obligation
3
Autorité des marchés financiers. The European EMIR Regulation
4
European Securities and Markets Authority. EMIR Reporting
5
Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation. The Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)
6
European Securities and Markets Authority. Final Report – Guidelines on Reporting Under EMIR REFIT
7
EUR-Lex. Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 – Article 9
8
European Securities and Markets Authority. Trade Repositories
9
FCA Handbook. EMIRR 2.3 Reconciliation of Data by Trade Repositories
10
European Securities and Markets Authority. EMIR Article 12 – Penalties
11
Financial Conduct Authority. UK EMIR Reporting Questions and Answers
12
Financial Conduct Authority. Reporting Obligation
13
European Securities and Markets Authority. Final Report on EMIR 3 Active Account Requirement