The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published the speech given by its chairman, Steven Maijoor, to the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. Among the points made by Mr Maijoor is the implementation challenges in the run-up to the implementation date of MiFID II. He states:

“I am not going to surprise anybody in the room when saying that the timing for stakeholders and regulators alike to implement the rules and build the necessary IT systems is extremely tight. Even more, there are a few areas where the calendar is already unfeasible. This relates to the fact that it will take some time, and well into 2016, before the text of the RTS will be stable and final. The building of some complex IT systems can only really take off when the final details are firmly set in the RTS and some of the most complex IT systems would need at least a year to be built. We have therefore raised these timing issues with the European Commission, and the fact that some IT systems will not be ready in January 2017, and the uncertainty this will create as they are needed for the execution of certain elements of MiFID II. Related to that, we have raised with the Commission whether this uncertainty would need a legislative response with delaying certain parts of MiFID II, mainly related to transparency, transaction and position reporting.”

View ECON scrutiny speech – MiFID II, 10 November 2015