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European Parliament grudgingly approves MiFID II delay

As expected, the European Parliament yesterday approved the inaptly-titled MiFID II “quick fix”, ratifying the one year delay in its application date. The ECON committee used the opportunity to vote for the following specific amendments: a particular transparency regime for packaged transactions, a clarification of the own account exemption and the exemption of securities financing transactions from transparency rules. Accompanying statements from the EP took on a more noticeably militant tone,

“The failure of the European Commission to come up with the pieces of implementing legislation that are needed to fully implement MiFID II made today’s vote necessary….Now it is up to the Commission to finally deliver the implementing legislation.” Markus Ferber, EP Rapporteur for MiFID II

“In Parliament, we have said that our agreement to delay MiFID depends on the commission taking on board all our concerns,” Neena Gill, MEP

“There is a risk for further delays if this is not taken seriously.” Sven Giegold, MEP

If there were a Guinness Book of Records entry for “most delayed piece of major legislation ever”, previous winner would be looking nervously at MiFID II. It is to be hoped that the Parliament’s increasingly strident tone does not presage further interminable wrangling and delay piled upon yet more delay.

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