Brussels, 27/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 27 November, the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee called for a one-year delay, from January 2017 to January 2018, for the financial instruments markets (MiFID) directive to come into force.
This extra time “only applies if the Commission finalises the implementing legislation swiftly and therefore takes into account the European Parliament's priorities,” warned Markus Ferber (EPP, Germany), in a press release. “Furthermore,” he added, “The Commission and ESMA need to come up with a clear roadmap on the implementation work” and especially for setting up the IT systems.
The MiFID-MiFIR legislation aims to boost transparency on the financial markets by requiring the sale of standardised derivatives to take place solely on regulated stock exchanges (see EUROPE 11062 and 10997). High-frequency trading (HFT) will be subject to new prudential rules through the monitoring of negotiations and appropriate liquidity requirements for market-making operators. Countries may introduce limits on net positions (but not on contracts as a whole) held by an investor in raw materials (wheat, soya, sugar, for example), in the light of their potential impact in terms of the setting of prices. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)