EUROPE: EU Parliament and Council agreement on MiFID II and MiFIR

Friday January 17 2014

The European Parliament and the Council reached an agreement on the updated rules for markets in financial instruments (MiFID II/MIFIR). The agreement on the legislative texts represents a critical milestone of the review that has been over two years in development since the Commission’s proposals were first published.

The new rules will be set as two pieces of legislation:

[i] a directly applicable Regulation (MiFIR) dealing inter alia with transparency and access to trading venues and;

[ii] a Directive (MiFID II) governing authorisation and organisation of trading venues and investor protection.

The Directive (MiFID II) amends specific requirements regarding the provision of investment services, the scope of exemptions from the current Directive (MiFID I), requirements for investment firms on their organisation and the conduct of their business, organisational requirements for trading venues, powers available to competent authorities, sanctions and rules applicable for third party firms.

The Regulation (MiFIR) sets out requirements in relation to the disclosure of trade transparency data to the public and transaction data to competent authorities, the authorisation and ongoing obligations applicable to providers of data services, the mandatory trading of derivatives on organised venues, and specific supervisory actions regarding financial instruments and positions in derivatives.

Click on the above link for more details.