Brussels, 13/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 12 February, the European Commission and the United States' chamber for regulating derivatives (CFTC) reported on progress in regulatory convergence on derivatives rules on either side of the Atlantic.
The two bodies have agreed for the draft MiFID II legislation (see EUROPE 10997) that the European multilateral negotiating systems (MTF) on which derivatives are sold will provisionally enjoy a derogation so that they can operate in the United States without having to register with the US authorities and be covered by American supervision. European MTF systems will have to meet a number of transparency requirements on the formation of prices, post-trading and non-discriminatory access to market operators.
In a press release, EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier said the agreement demonstrated how regulatory bodies cooperate in order to ensure their rules interact in the most efficient and effective way possible. This needs to be done without creating overlaps or leaving gaps in the legislation so that fair play rules. Barnier said this was an important stage, but plenty of work still remained to be done on global convergence.
In July 2013, the Commission and CFTC published a roadmap on convergence on EU and US derivatives legislation (see EUROPE 10886). They are working on access, the protection of data submitted to central derivative transaction databases and the risk of players shopping around for the most lenient central clearing house. (MB/transl.fl)