Risk magazine is reporting widespread comment that the 24 September adoption date for 26 MiFid II/MifiR draft ITS, will be postponed until October or later. This would represent the second specific delay- originally slated for July, RTS approval was set back by their submission to the EC legal team for pre-release review. The draft RTS […]

On 10 June 2015, the Fair and Effective Markets Review (“FEMR”) published its Final Report on the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities (“FICC”) markets. The Review was launched in June 2014 to cover the following areas: ·         Trading practices ·         Scope of regulation ·         Impact of recent and forthcoming regulation ·         Supervision As an interim […]

Steven Maijoor (ESMA chief) has written to Jonathan Faull (DG FISMA) in reference to a joint EC-ESMA early legal review of the MiFID 2/MiFIR and MAR draft RTS. The review will create a short but significant delay in the submission of the final RTS, from 3 July 2015 to 30 September 2015. The leter denotes […]

The FT has reported ESMA’s decision not to define FX derivatives for the purpose of EMIR trade reporting, deferring instead to the 2017 implementation of MiFID II. The advent of mandatory derivatives trade reporting in February exposed Europe-wide fault lines, as national authorities differed on the “derivative or not” status of forward FX contracts, a […]

The FCA and the European Commission (EC) remain encamped on their respective positions regarding the reporting of FX forwards. The FCA resists EC’s view that FX forwards must be brought within the scope of EMIR reporting and central clearing obligations. The FCA maintains that certain FX forwards fall outside the scope of EMIR, evading the […]

On 3 September 2014, the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group (SMSG) published four advices to ESMA on MiFID II: Investor protection Trading venues Transparency and trading obligations (equities) Transparency for the trading of non-equity instruments Following the example of the vast majority of participants who provided comments to the ESMA Consultation Paper on MiFID II, […]

Introduction The requirement to create and maintain a CASS Resolution Pack (CASS RP), formed a key plank in the FCA’s review of the client assets regime in the UK.  It requires each firm which is subject to CASS Chapter 6 (Custody rules) or Chapter 7 (Client money rules) to collate certain information regarding its handling […]

On 5 August 2014, EBA published a Consultation Paper on the draft technical advice about the factors warranting an intervention on structured deposits. Intervention powers include prohibition or restriction on the marketing, distribution or sale of structured deposits. In its mandate letter, the Commission stressed the fact that the technical advice would need to closely align with […]

The FCA published on 31 July 2014 a Thematic Review on best execution and payment for order flow (PFOF). PFOF arrangements compromise compliance with best execution requirement, a key concept of MiFID. The FCA found that some of the firms maintained PFOF arrangements with market makers, in contravention with the Finalised Guidance published in 2012. […]