Asia Awards 2025: Best reference data service—The Derivatives Service Bureau

Overview

The Derivatives Service Bureau’s (DSB’s) Unique Product Identifier (UPI) Service was developed to assist the industry’s regulators in identifying the buildup of systemic risk at a global level. The UPI aligns with G20 commitments made in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, calling for greater transparency within over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets. UPI reporting commenced in 2024 across the Asia-Pacific region, with Australia and Singapore rolling out UPI reporting on October 21 last year. Japan, Hong Kong and Korea are set to implement UPI reporting during 2025.

The solution  

The G20 commitment to the creation of the UPI for systemic risk monitoring brings greater transparency to, and integration with, the global OTC derivatives market. The UPI is an identifier representing a set of elements that the DSB ensures are harmonized and validated to enable consistent interpretation and high-data quality. The UPI enables regulators to understand the buildup of systemic risks by identifying OTC derivatives at an underlying product level.

Secret sauce  

The UPI Service is a G20-endorsed identifier reported to trade repositories as a means of strengthening regulatory oversight in the OTC derivatives market. The DSB, designated as the sole service provider by the Basel-based Financial Stability Board, worked together with regulatory authorities and industry participants to launch a service that integrates with existing workflows and was available three months ahead of the first regulatory reporting compliance date in the US, facilitating industry preparation.

Recent milestones

• Global uptake of the UPI Service, with the US, EU, UK, Australia and Singapore onboarding during 2024, led to the generation of over 1,400,000 UPIs by February 2025.
• Enhancements to the UPI Client Onboarding and Support Platform to assist users in managing subscriptions, onboarding and connectivity
• Support of Asia-Pacific users onboarding to the UPI Service through hosting a Japanese-translated webinar and delivering translated UPI support materials in Japanese and Korean

Future objectives

• Further uptake of the UPI Service as reporting mandates take effect in Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, Korea and Mexico throughout 2025, with DSB materials and webinars provided to aid the onboarding process
• Refinements as the impact of regulators using reporting data for systemic risk monitoring become more apparent, driving targeted initiatives to enhance data
• Support for new OTC derivative products and underlier requirements, including increased coverage of digital assets and other referential instruments

Why they won

One of the key takeaways from the 2008 global financial crisis was the realization and acknowledgment of the woeful inadequacy of the regulatory framework governing the OTC derivatives markets. The DSB’s outstanding UPI Service represents a huge step in the right direction, providing much-needed transparency to regulators monitoring the global OTC market for the buildup and concentration of systemic risk. 

Initiatives such as this deserve the recognition they receive, given the transformative impact they have on an industry continually evolving through a mix of innovation and regulation. These awards are the perfect place to showcase the type of innovation introduced by the DSB and its UPI Service as it continues its rollout across the Asia-Pacific region.