Jul 06, 2012
Thousands of amends lead to MiFID II delay
A key vote by the European Parliament on
MiFID II has been delayed until after the summer, giving MEPs more time to
analyse over 2,000 amends to the European Commission's original proposal.
The Parliament’s Economic and Monetary
Affairs Committee (ECON) was scheduled to meet early next week to finalise
their position on the revised directive but will now hold its vote in September or early October. MiFID II will include widespread
changes to the regulation of high-frequency trading firms, rules governing
broker crossing networks (BCNs) and the creation of new trading venues for OTC
derivatives. It also extends the original version of the directive beyond
equities, into fixed income, commodities and derivatives.
The debate surrounding BCNs is particularly
contentious, with MEPs presenting a number of suggestions on how they should be
regulated. This has included whether BCNs should be
reclassified under a new regime called organised trading facilities and if they
are allowed to include proprietary trading in them. MEPs have also presented a
variety of views on how high-frequency trading should be handled.
A spokesperson from the office of Markus
Ferber MEP, the politician tasked with coordinating ECON’s MiFID II proposal,
said the Parliament’s review was “progressing smoothly”, but that the sheer
number of amends meant a postponement of the vote was the most prudent form of
action.
Anish Puaar
+44 (0)20 7397 3817
anish.puaar@thetrade.ltd.uk