A Unique Transaction Identifier (

Acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

: UTI), alternatively called Unique Swap Identifier (Acronym: USI) is a globally

unique identifier A unique identifier (UID) is an identifier that is guaranteed to be unique among all identifiers used for those objects and for a specific purpose. The concept was formalized early in the development of computer science and information systems. ...

for individual transactions in financial markets. USIs were introduced in late 2012 in the U.S. in the context of Dodd–Frank regulation, where reporting of transactions to Trade Repositories first became mandatory. European financial market regulations followed suit, with reporting to Trade Repositories under

EMIR Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...

requiring UTIs from February 2014 on. The use of the UTI is also mandatory for regulatory reporting under REMIT. Strictly speaking, the term USI is specific to the U.S. regulation, while UTI is specific to EU regulations. In practice, both terms are used interchangeable, in particular within large trading firms reporting under both regimes. The UTI/USI is governed by the

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

23897 standard.

Structure

A UTI/USI is an

alphanumeric Alphanumericals or alphanumeric characters are a combination of alphabetical and numerical characters. More specifically, they are the collection of Latin letters and Arabic digits. An alphanumeric code is an identifier made of alphanumeric ch ...

code of fixed length, with the maximum length defined as either 42 (U.S.) or 52 (EU) characters. The UTI typically consists of a

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...

followed by the

concatenated In formal language theory and computer programming, string concatenation is the operation of joining character strings end-to-end. For example, the concatenation of "snow" and "ball" is "snowball". In certain formalisations of concatenat ...

code value. Taken together, prefix and value form the UTI, and should be globally unique. The prefix portion of the UTI code should be a unique code for the code issuing authority. Ideally, the prefix would have reused the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) of the entity issueing the UTI. LEI codes are used across the financial reporting regimes in the U.S. (Dodd-Frank) and Europe (EMIR / MiFID). However, the LEI code length of 20 characters represented a problem for many systems, which in practice limited the usable prefix length to 10 characters. In June 2013, ISDA working groups suggested that the characters 7 through 16 of the 20 character global LEI number should be used as the UTI prefix. This would have led to clashes between UTIs generated for different organisations having the same characters 7 through 16 in their LEIs. The current recommendation by the BIS, based on the CPMI/IOSCO Harmonization Group consultations regarding the prefix (the mint component of the UTI), is: "With regard to what code should constitute the mint component, the CPMI and IOSCO have applied the preference for using existing international standards and have selected the LEI code".https://www.bis.org/cpmi/publ/d158.pdf The second component of the UTI is the code value, sometimes called the Transaction Identifier part. The CFTC defines the transaction identifier part as an alphanumeric code of variable length, up to a maximum of 32 characters. In addition to alphanumeric characters, certain special characters are permissible as internal delimiters: colon,

hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (figure d ...

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

, and

underscore An underscore, ; also called an underline, low line, or low dash; is a line drawn under a segment of text. In proofreading, underscoring is a convention that says "set this text in italic type", traditionally used on Manuscript (publishing), man ...

. These special characters may not start or end the code, nor may they be used consecutively. The ESMA recommend that the Trade ID should be formed by the concatenation (without separators) of the three elements; the characters 'E02', the LEI of the generating entity and a unique Trade ID generated by the generating entity. The prefixes 'E00' through 'E99' are reserved by the ESMA.

Check digit A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for error detection on identification numbers, such as bank account numbers, which are used in an application where they will at least sometimes be input manually. It is analogous to a binary parity ...

s are not a prescribed part of the UTI, but some issueing systems have them as part of the code value.

References

Sources

* BIS(editors):
Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions Technical Guidance Harmonisation of the Unique Transaction Identifier
. February, 2017. * ESMA(editors):
Questions and Answers Implementation of the Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories (EMIR
. February 16, 2016. * CFTC (editors):
Unique Swap Identifier (USI) - Data Standard
'. October 1, 2012. * ISDA (editors):
Unique Swap Identifier (USI) : An Overview Document
'. June 7, 2012. * ISDA (editors):
Unique Trade Identifier (UTI): Generation, Communication and Matching
'. March 20, 2015. * ACER (editors):
Trade Reporting User Manual (TRUM), Annex IV - Guidance on UTI v1.0
', March 8, 2016.

External links

UTI generation for commodity trading
at the

European Federation of Energy Traders The European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) is an association of European energy traders in markets for wholesale electricity and gas. EFET was founded in 1999 in response to the liberalisation of electricity and gas markets within the Europe ...

(EFET) {{Authority control Unique identifiers Financial regulation