KOR Secures CFTC Approval to Become First Independent Swap Data Repository

• Service addresses more than $178 million in trade reporting compliance fines since 2019
• Announcement comes amid significant changes in global trade reporting regulation
• Industry pioneers create first "intelligent" transactional derivatives platform
• Reporting-as-a-Service innovates full reporting solution onto one platform

ATLANTA, March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- KOR, a trade data processing and management platform for derivatives markets, has been registered by the primary U.S. derivatives regulator, CFTC, as a licensed regulatory Swap Data Repository ("SDR") for all asset classes and client segments. This is the first such approval granted by the CFTC since 2014, and the first cloud-native SDR. It comes eight months ahead of a critical compliance deadline in the U.S., intended to harmonize the entire derivatives reporting infrastructure.

The KOR SDR and complementary reporting services are live for testing and go into production in summer 2022. For the first time, participants will benefit from sub-second actionable analytics on submitted data, on-demand reports of full history, and insights to improve compliance processes and drive operational efficiencies.

The U.S. reporting license is KOR's first step in evolving reporting across global regulatory jurisdictions. The business is currently applying for an SEC Securities-Based SDR license with immediate plans for licenses in Canada, Singapore, Australia, the UK and the EU in advance of pending regulatory changes. 

"Regulatory reporting has been ripe for innovation for years," said Jonathan Thursby, CEO and founder of KOR. "Participants have been limited to under-designed yet expensive systems providing the bare minimum to meet compliance requirements. We've created an alternative that takes a decade of global learning and bold technology designs to completely redefine every aspect of regulatory trade reporting. This way our clients can focus more on their core business with confidence."

Before founding KOR, Thursby was the founder and head of CME's global regulatory reporting business from its inception in 2012 to the eventual sunsetting of the business in 2020. He is joined by co-founder Tara (Collier) Manuel, founder and former head of ICE's global trade reporting and eConfirm businesses, along with an experienced team of industry professionals and technology pioneers.

KOR provides a Reporting-as-a-Service (RaaS) offering to complement its SDR, that together replace many common reporting functions and solve numerous systemic reporting challenges.

The 100% AWS cloud-native platform is combined with Confluent Cloud-powered infinite storage event-driven architecture. This enables KOR to deliver unprecedented speed, scale, data quality, analytics and machine learning insights.

NOTES FOR REPORTERS

• KOR is entering the U.S. market with a solution fully compliant with the amended parts 43, 45 and 49 CFTC reporting rules and technical specifications which go into effect May 25, 2022 and have a final compliance date of December 5, 2022. Participants selecting KOR for CFTC SDR reporting may move under simplified SDR porting rules, immediately accessing the benefits KOR offers and avoiding a high-risk single whole of market compliance cut over date.
• The updated CFTC swaps reporting rules add reporting of collateral, shift nonpublic trade reporting to T+1, introduces data quality and completeness reconciliation, incorporates globally harmonized critical data elements (CDE) for a first phase with a final compliance date of December 5, 2022.  A second phase of the amended reporting rules introduce an Unique Product Identifier (UPI) and the ISO XML 20022 format for Q4 2023.

ABOUT KOR FINANCIAL

U.S.-based KOR Financial is a fintech company that develops future-minded technology innovations tailored specifically for the derivatives markets. KOR is CFTC-licensed and the first independent Swap Data Repository ("SDR"), delivering solutions that enable market participants to meet reporting mandates for OTC derivative trades and lifecycle events. KOR provides a Reporting-as-a-Service (RaaS) offering to complement its SDR, which together replace many common reporting functions and solve numerous systemic reporting challenges. The KOR team comprises former trade repository heads, SMEs and technology pioneers, creating the first intelligent transactional derivatives platform. The CFTC SDR license is issued to and operated by KOR Reporting Inc., an affiliate of KOR Financial Inc.

For more information, visit our website and follow KOR on LinkedIn and Twitter

SOURCE KOR Financial