Technical Notice

TRACE ABS and ABSX Reference Data Availability

April 27, 2015

On Monday, June 1, 2015, FINRA will implement changes that affect TRACE reporting requirements, TRACE data feeds and TRACE reference data. As part of these changes, the existing sub-product "ABS" will be separated into two sub-products:

  • ABS, which contains the securities meeting the definition in FINRA Rule 6710(cc), will be subject to the shorter trade reporting time frame and dissemination on June 1; and
  • ABSX, which are securities not meeting this definition, namely CMBS and CDO/CLO/CBO, will not be subject to the shorter reporting time frames or dissemination.

Starting on June 1, the TRACE Security Master File containing sub-product ABSX securities (i.e., securities not eligible for dissemination) will be available for users to download via the Securitized Products Web API. The TRACE Security Master File containing sub-product ABS securities will continue to be available via the Web API as per current functionality.

Over the past three months, FINRA has been working with industry specialists to accurately define the ABS and ABSX rosters of securities. To give firms adequate time to build their master files for the June 1, 2015, implementation, FINRA will post a weekly file of FINRA Symbols1 for TRACE ABS and ABSX securities on the TRACE product and TRACE Dissemination Migration pages of FINRA.org.2  The ABS and ABSX securities files will be posted each Friday from May 1, 2015, through May 29, 2015.3  There will be no fees to access this information.

Please direct technical questions and comments regarding this notice to FINRA Product Management or call (866) 899-2107. Please direct questions regarding the classification of securities included in the ABS or ABSX lists to TRACE Data Services at (888) 507-3665.

 

  1. Due to licensing and redistribution restrictions, the files can only contain the FINRA assigned Symbols and the security's intended classification as of June 1, 2015.
  2. The securities in this file may substantially differ from the ABSX Master File available each day in the NTF region.  
  3. Beginning on June 1, 2015, firms authorized to access the Securitized Products Web API may query the ABS and ABSX master file and receive the current data sets for each roster of securities.