The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published an opinion with interim transparency calculations for non-equity instruments in relation to the implementation of MiFID II/MiFIR. The calculations specify the transparency regime applicable to trading in secondary markets from 3 January 2018, when MiFID II comes into force. The opinion sets out a list of asset classes and provides hyperlinks to data files containing the outcomes of the transitional transparency calculations for all non-equity instruments that have been classified as liquid in accordance with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/583. ESMA has also published an accompanying FAQs to assist firms that may be updated in the future to cover additional question.

Steven Maijoor, ESMA Chair, stated:

“Six months from today, the transparency of EU financial and commodities markets will start to improve significantly. Including non-equity products into MIFID II’s scope is a major step forward. It will better help to protect against market abuse and better mitigate systemic risks.”

In addition, ESMA states that the publication thresholds per bond in sizes of large in scale and in size specific to the instruments, planned for 3 July 2017, has been delayed as ESMA needs to perform an additional quality review of the information submitted by third parties.  The interim calculations for bonds will be published in August 2017.

View ESMA opinion on MiFID II transitional transparency calculations, 3 July 2017

View ESMA MiFID II transitional transparency calculation, 3 July 2017