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.