The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published updated versions of the two Q&A documents on implementation issues relating to transparency and market structures requirements under MIFID II.

The Q&A on transparency has been updated with four new questions and answers clarifying issues on the new systematic internaliser regime including:

• the level at which the firm must perform the calculation, in order to identify if an investment firm is a systematic internaliser, where it is part of a group or operates EU branches;
• which transactions should be exempted from, and included in, the calculation;
• at which level of asset class the calculation should be performed for derivatives, bonds and structured finance products; and
• how SIs in non-equity instruments can comply with some of their quoting obligations.

The Q&A on market structures has been updated with three new questions and answers which clarify:

• when a multilateral trading facility (MTF) operator can also be a member of its own MTF;
• that trading venues locating electronic systems on a third party data centre must comply with the co-location provisions; and
• how the reference to market makers should be understood under Article 2(1)(d) of MiFID II, which provides an exemption, under very specific conditions, from the obligation to be authorised as an investment firm.

The purpose of ESMA’s Q&As is to promote common supervisory approaches and practices in the application of the MiFID II Directive and MiFIR, and the related implementing measures. ESMA plans to continue developing the Q&As over the coming months.

View ESMA updates MiFID II Q&As on transparency and market structures, 31 January 2017