When the clocks go back – don’t (or maybe do) let your timestamps fall behind!

In the early hours of Sunday 26 October, clocks across the UK and much of mainland Europe will go back one hour. For most of us, that means an extra hour in bed. For those working in trade and transaction reporting, it can also mean an extra opportunity for time-related errors to impact reported data accuracy.

Under UK and EU MiFIR and EMIR, all reportable time fields must be expressed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This consistency makes it easier for regulators to monitor trading activity across jurisdictions and identify potential instances of market abuse. As we have noted before, the FCA clearly used the transaction data to analyse two successful market abuse cases this year. 

With the clock change approaching, now is a good time to double-check your reporting systems, times received on execution messages and the many hidden locations where +/- offsets may still be applied.

Despite how long this requirement has been in place, we continue to see firms struggle with daylight savings. We have onboarded several clients this year who – after receiving regulatory inquiries about incorrect trade times – have commissioned us to review their wider reporting accuracy. 

At Kaizen, our ReportShield quality assurance helps firms detect and correct time-based inconsistencies. Because whether you spring forward or fall back, accurate timing is essential to accurate reporting. 

Get in touch for a demo or a conversation on how we can get your reporting into better shape.