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CISI Global Securities Operations study materials
CISI Global Securities Operations study resources

CISI Global Securities Operations: Regulatory and Compliance Framework for Securities Operations

CISI Global Securities Operations · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Regulatory and Compliance Framework for Securities Operations

What this domain tests

The exam tests which rules bite on operational activity: transaction reporting, record keeping, client asset protection, settlement discipline, market abuse controls and senior management accountability across UK, EU and US regimes.

Core regimes

  • MiFID II/MiFIR (and the UK onshored equivalents): best execution, transaction reporting, clock synchronisation, record keeping.
  • CSDR: settlement discipline, cash penalties, internalised settlement reporting, authorisation of CSDs.
  • EMIR and SFTR: derivative and securities financing reporting, clearing and margining obligations.
  • MAR: surveillance and suspicious transaction and order reporting.
  • CASS 6/7 (UK): client asset segregation, daily internal and external reconciliations, records.
  • SM&CR: named senior managers accountable for defined activities, with prescribed responsibilities.
  • US: SEC rules including Reg SHO, plus Dodd-Frank reporting; GDPR governs personal data handling.

Operational obligations

  • MiFIR transaction reports must be submitted by close of the next working day, complete and accurate across 65+ fields - operations typically feeds these from the same static data used for affirmation.
  • Records must be retained (five years under MiFID, longer for certain client asset records).
  • Breaches must be logged, escalated, notified where required and remediated with evidence.

Worked example

A firm executes an equity trade on Monday at 10:00 and discovers on Tuesday that the transaction report carried the wrong venue code. Reasoning: the report was due by close of business Tuesday (T+1). Because the error is identified before the deadline, the firm submits a corrected report and a cancellation of the erroneous one, logs the breach, and investigates whether the venue code mapping in static data is systematically wrong. If undetected, the firm faces regulatory notification and remediation obligations.

Traps that cost marks

  • Mixing UK and EU versions of onshored rules after Brexit.
  • Missing the T+1 transaction reporting deadline.
  • Assuming settlement discipline only concerns the CCP, not the settling participant.
  • Treating compliance as solely the compliance department's job rather than the first line's.