Energy firms rely on patched-up solutions for reporting

Under new rules in Europe and the US, energy firms have to aggregate trade data from a variety of internal sources and report it to repositories. While it was hoped this process could lead to wider improvements in analytics, risk management and standardisation, such benefits haven’t yet emerged. By Stella Farrington

Regulators have long criticised the over-the-counter derivatives market for being opaque, but after the 2008 financial crisis, many realised they had even less visibility into the market than previously thought. Consequently, the idea of forcing market participants to report their transactions was conceived as a way to improve regulatory oversight. But for some firms trading energy derivatives – including companies such as oil producers, utilities and commodity trading houses – the plans were