MIFID II IMPLEMENTATION IS DELAYED – AGAIN – BUT THERE’S NO ROOM FOR COMPLACENCY

MiFID II’s arrival in the European commodity markets was delayed last year from January 2017 to January 2018. However, the chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) recently suggested that even the proposed 12-month delay may actually not be enough.

While many of MiFID II’s regulatory technical standards are still being outlined, EU member states are procrastinating over ratification. This means that there is a lot of uncertainty about what actions are required to implement MiFID II and we are already hearing that many smaller firms are scaling back their implementation efforts.

It would be a shame if that points to a wider industry trend, because this latest set of rules aimed at regulating commodity trading has serious and complex operational implications which require an equally measured and well-planned technology response.

MiFID II consists of a directive, which must be implemented by each EU Member State, and a regulation which is applied across the EU. As with the recently implemented EMIR and REMIT regimes for commodity trading, technical standards and other secondary legislation must be drafted and adopted by ESMA before legislation can be implemented.

Apr-Jun 2016 Issue

Allegro Development