Brussels, 21/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Member states' representatives to the EU on the Coreper committee endorsed on Wednesday 19 February the agreement reached by the Greek Presidency and European Parliament representatives on the draft MiFID II legislation on financial instruments markets.
The proposals aim to promote transparency by requiring standardised derivatives to be sold on regulated bourses and banning anonymous share trading (see EUROPE 10997). Competition will be boosted in trading by ensuring non-discriminatory access to negotiating platforms and central clearing houses. High-frequency trading (HFT) will be subject to new prudential rules that monitor negotiations and require certain liquidity levels for operators involved in market-making. The EP's desire to introduce a minimum retention time of half a second has been scrapped. Based on guidelines from the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA), member states may set limits on net positions (but not on all contracts as a whole) held by any investor in commodity derivatives (corn, soya, sugar and so on) to restrict their impact on prices.
The EP will endorse the deal in the March or April plenary. (MB/transl.fl)