The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published revised opinions providing guidance related to third-country trading venues for post trade transparency and position limits under MiFID II / MiIFR.

The opinions address the treatment of transactions executed by EU investment firms on third-country trading venues, for post-trade transparency under MiFIR, and the treatment of positions held in contracts traded on those venues for the position limit regime under MiFID II.

The revised opinions state that, pending an ESMA assessment of more than 200 third-country trading venues under the criteria in the two opinions, transactions on third-country trading venues do not need to be made post-trade transparent and/or positions held in those third-country venue contracts are not considered to be economically equivalent over-the-counter contracts.

ESMA states that it will carry out determinations of third-country trading venues and publish the results in the course of 2018.

View ESMA revised opinions on transactions on third-country trading venues for post-trade transparency and position limits under MiFID II, 15 December 2017