On Thursday 19 July, the European Commission decided to take action before the Court of Justice of the EU against Slovenia and Spain for their failure fully to implement the 'MiFID II' directive (2014/65) on the financial instruments markets, as well as the directive adding to it (2017/593).
If member states do not transpose these rules correctly, the Commission stresses in a press release, investors are unable to benefit from the enhanced protection of safeguards of financial instruments and funds belonging to clients, product governance and the provision of commissions or non-monetary benefits. It will also allow transferable securities trading venues to evade stricter and more transparent operating rules.
The national competent authorities of member states failing correctly to apply the new rules are, furthermore, unable to deliver legally sound authorisations for activities that have not been previously regulated, or that were regulated differently under the 'MiFID I' regime. These include the regulated markets, multilateral trading facilities (MTF) and organised trading facilities (OTF).
The 'MiFID' directive has been in force since the beginning of 2018. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)