On 16 July 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published two reports on the MiFID II / MiFIR transparency regime:

• MiFID II/MiFIR review report on the transparency regime for equity and equity-like instruments, the double volume cap mechanism and the trading obligation for shares. The report covers mandates under Article 52(1) to (3) of MiFIR, which require ESMA to submit a report to the European Commission on the impact in practice of the transparency obligations established pursuant to Articles 3 to 13 of MiFIR and, in particular, on the impact of the volume cap mechanism established under Article 5 of MiFIR. In order to provide for a comprehensive assessment, ESMA has decided at its own initiative to also include an assessment of other key transparency provisions namely, the share trading obligation (Article 23 of MiFIR) and the transparency provisions applicable to systematic internalisers (Articles 14 to 21 of MiFIR).
• MiFIR report on systematic internalisers in non-equity instruments. Under MiFIR, Member State competent authorities and ESMA shall monitor the application of the pre-trade transparency obligations applicable to systematic internalisers in respect of bonds, structured finance products, emission allowances and derivatives (non-equity instruments). This monitoring focuses on the sizes at which quotes are made available to clients of the investment firm and other market participants relative to other trading activity of the firm, and the degree to which the quotes reflect prevailing market conditions. Based on the monitoring ESMA is to submit a report to the Commission by 3 July 2020. Based on the feedback received during a public consultation which ran from 3 February to 15 April 2020, the report now published constitutes the final report being submitted to the Commission.

ESMA has also published a timeline of upcoming MiFID II review reports.