The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has released its package of public consultations as part of the MiFIR review. These aim to improve transparency and system resilience in financial markets, reduce the reporting burden and promote convergence in the supervisory approach.
This latest package consists of five elements. Once approved, the standards will facilitate the implementation of the consolidated tape provider (CTP) in the EU and contribute to a more informative pre- and post-trade transparency regime, the association said. European financial markets will also benefit from greater efficiency and competitiveness as a result of streamlined reporting requirements, it added.
The first element of the package considers amendments to rules on the liquidity assessment for equity instruments, on equity instruments and on the volume cap. A draft of the new implementing technical standard (ITS) on systematic internalisers (SIs) is also included, along with a section on the flags that should be used in post-trade transparency reports for non-equity instruments.
Considering input/output data around the equity CTP, the consultations include a section on ensuring alignment between transparency requirements and CTP specifications.
To adapt to the DORA framework and include provisions on circuit breakers, ESMA has also included new rules on the organisational requirements of trading venues.
ESMA is accepting comments on the consultations until 15 September for technical advice (Section 3), regulatory technical standards (RTS) 1 (Section 4), the RTS on input/output data for shares and ETFs CTP (Section 8), and the flags under RTS 2. Responses on the SI ITS Section 5), RTS 3 (Section 6) and RTS 7 (Section 7) can be made until 15 October.
A final report on the technical advice and the draft technical standards for RTS 1, the input/output data RTS, and RTS 2, including flags, will be submitted to the European Commission in December, with remaining mandates submitted in March 2025.
Patricia Moreno, head of equity product and quant research at BME Exchange, part of SIX, commented: “Given how quickly market conditions change, we welcome ESMA’s liquidity and equity market transparency assessment. Venues need to have a relentless focus on innovation to ensure that market participants can adjust to any future changes.”
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