ESMA must revise MiFID II standards, says EC 18 February 2016Paris Reporter: Stephanie Palmer
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The European Commission has asked the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to revise three of the draft regulatory technical standards outlined in the Markets in Financial Infrastructure Directive (MiFID) II.
The commission rejected ESMA’s standards on non-equity transparency, ancillary activity exemption and position limits, requesting the authority to reconsider the standards, taking the European Parliament’s position further in to consideration.
Markus Ferber, the European Parliament rapporteur for MiFID II, said: “The latest drafts were far from being acceptable for the European Parliament. Especially the position limits regime urgently needs a comprehensive redrafting in order to effectively curb food speculation. So far, neither ESMA nor the commission have managed to deliver. The latest drafts were just not up to standard and would not have solved the problem at all.”
“The commission is right to be afraid of the technical standards being rejected by the European Parliament – hence, further work is necessary. I expect ESMA to revisit those technical standards swiftly, thoroughly and to adapt them in line with the European Parliament’s remarks.”
He added, however that redrafting the standards must not lead to a further delay to the implementation of MiFID II, which has already been delayed from the original implementation date of 3 January 2017 to January 2018.
Ferber said: “The European Parliament’s concerns on this topic were known and available for quite some time. Therefore, the commission and ESMA could have easily acted earlier.”
ESMA has confirmed that it received a letter from the European Commission concerning three of the technical standards.
A spokesperson from the authority said: “We are studying the contents and are deciding on the way forward.”
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