European Commission sends MIFID II back to the drawing board
The European Commission has rejected three technical standards included in MIFID II’s level 2 standards, sending them back to the European Securities and Markets Authority for a rewrite.
Specifically, the commission objected to the standards governing trading on commodities, exemptions for ancillary market service providers and displaying prices in fixed income markets.
The decision comes after parliamentarians said the existing proposals were unsatisfactory, leaving ESMA with six weeks to rework the proposals.
This interruption in finalising the Level 2 standards has revivified fears that MIFID II, which is Europe’s primary legislation brought in to protect investors and introduce transparency into fixed income markets, will have to be further delayed. The regulation has already been postponed by a year from its proposed January 2017 implementation date.
“The latest drafts were far from being acceptable. Especially the position limits regime urgently needs a comprehensive redrafting in order to effectively curb food speculation,” said Markus Ferber, The European Parliament’s rapporteur for Mifid II. “So far, neither Esma nor the Commission have managed to deliver.”
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