ESMA's choices in this review are of a pure technical nature and do not imply strategic decisions or policy choices.

ESMA's options are limited to the approach it took to drafting these particular regulatory and implementing technical standards and the need to ensure clarity, consistency or reporting and uniformity of formats.

The main policy decisions have already been analysed and published by the European Commission under the primary legislation, i.e.: Regulation (EU) No 2019/834 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012.

ESMA assessed the received feedback with a view to gather further information on the costs and benefits of the options proposed in the Consultation Paper. Most of the responses were of a qualitative nature. Several respondents commented on the need to provide the relevant entities with more information for the implementation of the proposals and to establish sufficient timespan for the implementation. ESMA understands that these aspects are key to limit the unnecessary costs and intends to provide the comprehensive guidance and documentation ahead of the reporting start date. Furthermore, ESMA retained its proposal of granting 18-month implementation timeline from the date of publication of the technical standards.

ESMA understands that the proposed amendments to the technical standards will enhance the quality of the data reported under EMIR and thus provide a clear benefit to the authorities which are entitled to access EMIR data, but also to reporting entities and TRs.

For example, the proposed amendments aligning the requirements in the EU with the global guidance on reporting of OTC derivatives are expected to bring a significant reduction in costs for entities reporting under several jurisdictions.