Securities regulators are calling on participants in the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market to ensure that they have obtained legal entity identifiers (LEIs) ahead of the new trade reporting requirements, which take effect on Oct. 31.

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) notes that trade reporting rules require derivatives market participants to obtain an LEI, as part of the regulators’ initiative to improve oversight of the OTC derivatives markets.

The new trade reporting rules require counterparties to derivatives trades and designated trade repositories to identify all counterparties to transactions by an LEI. Identifiers are available from the global LEI system, the OSC says.

The commission acknowledges that there may be challenges in obtaining counterparty LEIs by Oct. 31; and says that firms should use best efforts to obtain their LEIs as soon as possible.

It also notes that certain jurisdictions have legal impediments to complying with these rules, including data protection laws, blocking statutes, state secrecy laws, and bank secrecy laws. The OSC says that counterparties faced with these sorts of legal impediments should apply for exemptive relief from the commission.