Reminder: TRACE Corporate and Agency Debt Trade Reporting to FINRA TRAQS Begins February 6, 2012

The TRACE corporate and agency debt trade reporting migration to the FINRA TRAQS platform will occur on Monday, February 6, 2012.

 

Below are the relevant changes that users can expect beginning February 6, 2012.

 

Subject Change
Trade reporting access
  • Website to report and view corporate and agency debt trades: https://www.finratraqs.org.
    Please note, after February 3, 2012, www.finratrace.org will no longer be supported.
  • FIX messaging can be used to report corporate and agency debt trades.
  • CTCI formats have been modified from legacy version.
  • Please note, after Feb. 3, 2012, the RTTM interface will no longer be supported.
Data feed (BTDS/ATDS) message processing
  • New message types and formats introduced to support the dissemination of corporate and agency debt trade transactions.
Reference Data (Master File and Daily List) processing
  • The Web API will be used to download issue master and daily list data.
    Please note, the SFTP daily process for these files will no longer be supported after the close of business on Feb. 3, 2012.
Other market data processing (Market Aggregates, Indices, Closing prices)
  • The Web API will be used to download other market data.
    Please note, the SFTP daily process for these files will no longer be supported after the close of business on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012.
Note: In order to support users who require historical reference information for the market data information, FINRA will support historical queries from the SFTP interface until Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012. After that date, historical files available via SFTP will no longer be accessible.
Trade reporting technical changes
  • The dollar amount (and not number of bonds) is used to report quantity in a trade.
  • Commissions are reported as flat dollar value.
  • Capacity (P or A) must be submitted on all trades.
  • Settlement Dates should be included in the reporting of trades (the settlement modifiers are no longer applicable).
  • Trades entered into the FINRA TRAQS system can be canceled or corrected as far back as T-20.
  • Trades entered into the FINRA TRAQS system can be reversed if > than T-20.
  • Trades originally submitted to legacy TRACE can be canceled or corrected via the TRAQS Reversal function.
  • Weekends and holidays can be reported as valid execution dates.
Reference data changes – Church Bonds

Church bonds that currently exist in TRACE with mock CUSIPS will no longer be listed with these CUSIPS. All church bonds will now have an identifying symbol beginning with “CHRC” and a blank CUSIP.

 

For example, if a church bond currently has a CUSIP that starts with “FNRA”, beginning on Feb. 6, 2012, the CUSIP field will be blank. This indicates the issue never had a valid CUSIP.
Reference data – existing securities Existing TRACE securities will retain their current TRACE symbols on Feb. 6, 2012. New securities created on and after that date will be assigned a symbol created systemically by our new reference data system, which will incorporate the issuer ticker symbol.

 

FINRA contacts: 

Issue / Question Contact
Browser access, setup or functionality, New Issue Form and TRACE Order Form

FINRA Market Operations

(866) 776-0800
Technical specifications and system functionality

FINRA Product Management

(866) 899-2107
CTCI or FIX connectivity and other technical issues

NASDAQ OMX

(212) 231-5180 option #1

 

The relevant specifications for all components of the TRACE migration are listed below:

Please direct questions concerning this notice via email to FINRA Product Management or call (866) 899-2107. 

 

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