While there has been substantial progress at improving transparency in global derivatives markets since the financial crisis, more needs to be done, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA).

The ISDA published a paper Thursday that sets out a series of recommendations for regulators, market participants and industry service providers, designed to further improve regulatory transparency of derivatives market activity.

Due to reforms adopted in the wake of the crisis, the ISDA notes that most derivatives transactions are now being reported to trade repositories. But, it says that “major challenges remain, primarily because of a lack of standardization within and across jurisdictions in reporting requirements.” For example, it notes that data requirements vary across jurisdictions; some data requirements are not clearly defined; and, standardized reporting formats have been not adopted quickly, or broadly enough.

“The end result is that regulators may lack a true picture of risk in individual jurisdictions because of incomplete and inconsistent trade data, and cannot aggregate data (and risk exposures) on a global basis,” it says.

At the same time, the ISDA says that market participants face “costly, duplicative, and conflicting trade reporting rules”; and, trade repositories must collect and standardize data from multiple sources for multiple jurisdictions.

The paper outlines key principles for standardizing, aggregating and sharing data across borders; and, it proposes steps that it says should be considered in order to improve regulatory transparency.

“There has been significant progress in the reporting of swaps data, with reporting requirements coming into force in a number of jurisdictions,” said Scott O’Malia, CEO of the ISDA. “Yet much more progress could and should be made. Solutions to major trade reporting challenges exist and market participants, regulators and service providers need to work together to agree and implement them on a cross-border basis to ensure safe, efficient global derivatives markets.”