MiFIR transparency regime for non-equity financial instruments

14/01/2021

On 29 September 2020, ESMA published the Final Report on the MiFID II/MiFIR transparency regime applicable to non-equity financial instruments.

The proposals contained in the report aim at simplifying and bringing more efficiency to an overly complex regime and fostering harmonised application across the EU. The main proposals are:

  • Deleting the specific waiver and deferral for respectively orders and transactions above the “size-specific to the instrument” threshold.
  • Streamlining the deferral regime with both a simplified system based on volume masking and full publication after two weeks as well as removing the supplementary FINANCIAL REGULATION. Investment services, asset management and market infrastructure  deferral options left to NCAs under the current MiFIR text.
  • Transforming the possibility granted to NCAs to temporarily suspend MiFIR transparency provisions into a mechanism coordinated at EU-level.
  • Including the possibility to suspend on short notice the application of the derivative trading obligation similarly to the mechanism available in EMIR.
  • Complementing the criteria used to grant equivalence to third-country trading venues for the purpose of the derivative trading obligation with conditions relating to transparency and non-discriminatory access.