ES - CNMV position about foreign exchange contracts and similar derivatives

03/09/2020

On 27 July 2020, the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) is submitting a proposal for a Technical Guide to the public in relation to the provisions of Article 10(1)(b) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565 of 25 April, which completes Directive MIFID II, which establishes that derivative instruments related to foreign currencies that are means of payment and meet certain requirements are not considered to be financial instruments for the purposes of the said Directive.

This means that these derivative instruments, mainly forward foreign exchange contracts, are not subject to MiFID and CNMV supervision, and the transparency and customer protection rules of banking regulations apply.
The purpose of the Technical Guide is to transmit to credit institutions and other entities that provide investment services a series of criteria, based on the supervisory experience of the CNMV, regarding the way it must be verified that the requirements are met.