On 9 April 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a public statement postponing the application of the annual non-equity transparency calculations and the calculations for the systematic internaliser (SI) test for derivatives.
Key messages in the statement:
- Transparency calculations. The publication of the calculations including the liquidity assessment and the determination of the pre-trade and post-trade large in scale and size specific to the instrument thresholds for derivatives, ETCs, ETNs, emission allowances and structured finance products will be postponed from 30 April 2020 to 15 July 2020 and their application from 1 June 2020 to 15 September 2020. The transitional transparency calculations (TTC) will continue to apply until and including 14 September 2020;
- SIs. ESMA will publish the data for the performance of the SI test for derivatives, ETCs, ETNs, emission allowances and structured finance products by 1 August 2020 and the mandatory SI regime for derivatives, ETCs, ETNs, emission allowances and structured finance products will apply from 15 September 2020; and
- Bonds. The publication and application of the annual transparency calculations for bonds remain unchanged and the new pre-trade and post-trade large in scale and size specific to the instrument thresholds will be applicable from 1 June 2020.