Posts by: Benjamin Stafford

Council of EU Confirms the Ten Delegated Regulations on RTS under BMR

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On October 9, The Council of the EU published the minutes of a meeting held in its configuration as the Environment Council (12898/18).

Page 11 of the minutes confirms that the Council has decided not to object to ten Delegated Regulations setting out regulatory technical standards (“RTS“) under the Benchmarks Regulation ((EU) 2016/1011) (“BMR“) that were adopted by the European Commission in July 2018.

The European Parliament’s next step is to consider the Delegated Regulations and decide whether to object to them. If the Parliament does not object, the Delegated Regulations will be published in the Official Journal of the EU (“OJ“). The Regulations will enter into force 20 days after their publication in the OJ and apply two months after the date of publication.

ESMA Publishes two Decisions on MiFID II Assessments of Third Country Trading Venues

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ESMA published the two decisions of its board of supervisors on October 11 (both dated September 26, 2018). The following decisions were made on the delegation to the ESMA chair of assessments of third-country trading venues and related to:

  • A decision on the assessment for the purposes of Articles 20 and 21 of the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (Regulation 600/2014) (“MiFIR“) (ESMA70-155-5775).
  • A decision on the assessment for the purposes of Article 57(4) of the MiFID II Directive (2014/65/EU) (ESMA70-155-5905).

The decisions were regarding the treatment of transactions executed by EU investment firms on third-country trading venues, for post-trade transparency under MiFIR, and the treatment of positions held in contracts traded on those venues for the position limit regime under the MiFID II Directive. ESMA published opinions in December 2017 specifying that, subject to third-country trading venues meeting a set of criteria, investment firms trading on those trading venues are not required to make transactions public in the EU via an approved publication arrangement (“APA“).

In the decisions, the board of supervisors delegates responsibility for non-controversial assessments of third-country trading venues for these purposes to the ESMA chair. The decisions specify the criteria that the chair will use when assessing whether to consider a third-country entity as a trading venue for the purposes of Articles 20 and 21 of MiFIR or Article 57(4) of the MiFID II Directive. The board of supervisors retains its powers to perform controversial assessments of third-country trading venues.

UK Finance Publishes Brexit Quick Brief

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On October 11, UK Finance published a Brexit quick brief on equivalence in a future EU-UK trade framework for financial services (“BQB12“). This was developed in collaboration with Clifford Chance LLP and Global Counsel LLP.

The Brexit quick brief analyses the EU’s use of equivalence in financial services. Potential problems arising from the current equivalence regimes in the context of the UK’s relationship with the EU following Brexit were highlighted. The Brexit quick brief also summarizes potential reforms to equivalence proposed at an EU level. The Brexit quick brief also analyses the UK government’s initial proposals for a future trading relationship with the EU in financial services, which contemplated an enhanced form of the EU’s equivalence regime. READ MORE →