Expected one year delay to the implementation of MiFID II and MiFIR

01/12/2015

This would mean that the date by which MiFID II and MiFIR will apply would be 3rd January 2018 (rather than the current deadline of 3rd January 2017).

The Parliament says it will only accept this delay if the European Commission finalises the implementing legislation without any further delay. It also urges the Commission and ESMA to produce a roadmap on the implementation work and on setting up the required IT-systems. In a separate letter of 27 November 2015 to the European Commission, the MiFID II negotiating team expresses its disappointment over ESMA not addressing in a satisfactory manner the Parliament’s concerns in the areas of position limits (RTS 21), nonequity transparency (RTS 2) and the ancillary activity exemption (RTS 20); it urges the Commission to take these key issues very seriously and to “swiftly make the appropriate and necessary changes to the draft RTS” as further set out in the letter.

With the agreement of the Parliament to a delay of the full regime for 12 months, this now seems the likely outcome. To what extent the Commission will make changes to the RTS in line with Parliament’s proposed approach remains to be seen.