Reference time
Operators of trading venues and their members, participants or users, systematic internalisers, DPEs, APAs and CTPs shall synchronise the business clocks they use to record the date and time of any reportable event with the Coordinated Universal Time (‘UTC’) issued and maintained by the timing centres listed in the database maintained by the Bureau international des poids et mesures. Operators of trading venues and their members, participants or users, systematic internalisers, DPEs, APAs and CTPs may also synchronise the business clocks they use to record the date and time of any reportable event with UTC disseminated by a satellite system, provided that any offset from UTC is accounted for and removed from the timestamp.
Level of accuracy for operators of trading venues and systematic internalisers
1. Operators of trading venues and systematic internalisers shall ensure that their business clocks adhere to the levels of accuracy specified in Table 1 of Annex IV according to the gateway-to-gateway latency of each of their trading systems. Gateway-to-gateway latency shall be the time measured from the moment a message is received by an outer gateway of the trading venue’s system, sent through the order submission protocol, processed by the matching engine, and then sent back until an acknowledgement is sent from the gateway.
2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, operators of trading venues and systematic internalisers that operate a voice trading system, or a request for quote trading system where the response requires human intervention or does not allow for algorithmic trading, or a system that formalises negotiated transactions in accordance with Article 4(1), point (b), of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014, shall ensure that their business clocks do not diverge by more than one second from UTC referred to in Article 11. The operator of the trading venue or systematic internaliser shall ensure that times are recorded to at least a one second granularity.
3. Operators of trading venues and systematic internalisers that operate multiple types of trading systems shall ensure that each system adheres to the level of accuracy applicable to that system in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2.
Level of accuracy for members, participants or users of a trading venue
1. Members, participants, or users of trading venues shall ensure that their business clocks used to record the time of reportable events adhere to the level of accuracy specified in Table 2 of Annex IV.
2. Members, participants or users of trading venues that engage in multiple types of trading activities shall ensure that the systems that they use to record the time of reportable events adhere to the level of accuracy applicable to each of those trading activities in accordance with the requirements set out in Table 2 of Annex IV.
Level of accuracy for DPEs
1. DPEs shall record the date and time of reportable events up to one millisecond or better.
2. DPEs shall ensure that their business clocks used to record the time of reportable events do not diverge by more than one millisecond from the reference time laid down in Article 11.
3. By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 and 2, DPEs that have also acquired the status of systematic internaliser shall comply with Article 12.
Level of accuracy for APAs and CTPs
1. APAs and CTPs shall record the date and time of reportable events up to one millisecond or better.
2. APAs and CTPs shall ensure that their business clocks used to record the time of reportable events do not diverge by more than one millisecond from the reference time laid down in Article 11.
Compliance with the maximum divergence requirements
Operators of trading venues and their members, participants, or users shall establish a system of traceability to UTC. They shall be able to demonstrate traceability to UTC by documenting the system design, functioning and specifications. They shall be able to identify the exact point at which a timestamp is applied and to demonstrate that the point within the system where the timestamp is applied remains consistent. They shall review the compliance of the system of traceability to UTC with this Regulation at least once a year.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
