The MiFID II Regulatory and Implementing Technical Standards presented to the ESMA Board of Supervisors (“BoS”) on 24 September have now been published. On 22 October 2015 the FCA held a MiFID II Implementation roundtable meeting where the standards along with various matters concerning the regulators approach towards the implementation of the upcoming directive were discussed. Below we have provided summaries of the key take away points:
- the Delegated Acts will be adopted towards the end 2015 and will then enter a period of scrutiny (first quarter of 2016) by the Parliament and European Council before being published in the Official Journal;
- the majority of the focus of external commentary, in regards to draft technical standards, has focused on non-equity transparency, position limits, the ancillary exemption for commercial firms trading commodity derivatives, position limits and best execution issues;
- the FCA plans to publish two consultation papers on implementing MiFID II, one in December 2015 and another probably in March 2016. The first one will cover mainly markets issues whilst the second will cover a variety of topics, including conduct issues, client assets, systems and controls, enforcement, commodities and the definition of a financial instrument; and
- the FCA is planning to include a Handbook Guide to MiFID II which will reflect the fact that a significant amount of MiFID II takes the form of directly applicable regulations. The guide will attempt to explain in an easily understandable manner how the various parts of the UK’s implementation of MiFID II should fit together (a draft is intended to be included in the FCA’s December MiFID II consultation paper).
To view the full MiFID II Roundtable minutes published on November 4 2015 please follow this link.
Should you require any further advice or information on MiFID II, Cleveland & Co, your external in-house counsel, are here to help.
