Brussels, 07/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 7 June, the European Parliament approved the decision to postpone by one year - from January 2017 to January 2018 - the application of the MiFID-MiFIR legislative package aiming to increase the transparency of the financial markets.
Although it had the support of the majority of MEPs, the decision was not satisfactory to rapporteur Markus Ferber (EPP, Germany). He held the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), and especially the European Commission, responsible for this situation, as the European institution did not present the implementing measures for the legislative package in a timely fashion. “It is to be regretted that the supervisory authorities did not set the infrastructure in place on time and that the Commission did not respect a timetable laid down in 2014”, the German Christian Democrat said, during the plenary session debate. He asked the European institution to revisit “all of the mistakes identified” by the Parliament in the regulatory framework.
The Commission said that the delay was mainly due to the complexity of the dossier.
The MEPs adopted three amendments to the legislative package. One of these lays down the specific circumstances under which the pre-negotiation transparency obligations will not apply to orders concerning package transactions carried out by investment companies on their own behalf or for clients.
The MiFID-MiFIR legislative package governs the trade in standardised derivatives only on regulated trading venues (see EUROPE 10997). It subjects high-frequency trading to new prudential rules by means of controls on trade and an appropriate liquidity requirement for operators applying a market-making strategy. States may introduce limits on net positions (not to the whole of the contract) held by an investor in raw materials derivatives (wheat, soy, sugar), due to their potential impact on price-setting. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)