On 1st September 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator has published a Call for Evidence (CfE) in the context of its intention to review Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 2017/587 (RTS 1) and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 2017/583 (RTS 2) starting from Q4 2020-Q1 2021. RTS 1 and RTS 2 contain the main implementing measures in respect of the MiFID II/MiFIR transparency regime for equity and non-equity instruments.
The purpose of this exercise is to gather input and views on practical issues related to the application of RTS 1 and RTS 2 that market participants have identified since the application of MiFID II/ MiFIR. ESMA would also like to receive feedback on any technical issue and policy gap that market participants have encountered at implementation level, as well as unclear provisions. Respondents are invited to provide their suggestions and, where possible, related solutions by filling in the ESMA template. The deadline is 31st October 2020.
ESMA has already undertaken or is in the process of undertaking reviews of the MiFIR transparency regime for equity and non-equity instruments. The CPs as well as the Final Reports contain ESMA’s proposals for possible legislative amendments to the regime based on in-depth data analyses of the effects of the current regime since January 2018.
However, although the RTS 1 and RTS 2 review is closely linked to the review of the transparency regime mentioned above, this CfE constitutes a separate exercise. The transparency regime review covers a vast array of MiFID II/MiFIR provisions whereas the main objective of the CfE is to draw up a comprehensive list of practical issues related to provisions set out in RTS 1 and RTS 2. This allows ESMA to better target a number of practical issues before proceeding with an in-depth review through a consultation paper and a report to the European Commission entailing concrete legislative proposals.