On 27 September 2022, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a report on the Regulation on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology (DLT Pilot). The DLT Pilot will start applying on 23 March 2023.
The DLT Pilot includes a recital requiring ESMA to assess whether the regulatory technical standards (RTS) developed under MiFIR relative to certain pre-and post-trade transparency and data reporting requirements need to be amended so that they may also be effectively applied to financial instruments issued, traded and recorded on DLT.
Earlier this year ESMA issued a call for evidence seeking input from stakeholders as to the need for amending the RTS on pre- and post-trade transparency requirements.
The report now published provides the feedback that ESMA received to its call for evidence and highlights the way forward.
Based on the feedback received:
- ESMA does not consider it necessary to amend the RTS on transparency and data reporting requirements for the purpose of the DLT Pilot.
- However, ESMA recognises that for certain technical elements guidance on its expectations will contribute to a consistent application of the DLT Pilot. ESMA intends to issue such guidance either before the application of the DLT Pilot, or based on first experiences of the Pilot, as appropriate.
- ESMA considers it important to already at this stage make some recommendations on compensatory measures that Member State competent authorities should request to ensure the integrity, completeness, consistency, usability, and comparability of the supervisory data collected from DLT market infrastructures. ESMA does not intend to provide guidance on other compensatory measures at this stage.
