The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published three letters that it has sent to the European Commission concerning certain draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) under MiFID II and MiFIR. The draft RTS relate to position limits, ancillary activity and non-equity transparency.

In each letter ESMA states that the Commission’s formal deadline for approving the draft RTS passed in December 2015. However, ESMA acknowledges that MiFID II and MiFIR is an extraordinary project and that this is an “exceptional case”.

ESMA states that it intends to move forward on the basis of two important assumptions:

• the Commission’s letter of 14 March 2016, informing ESMA that DG FISMA is supportive of the general approach that ESMA has taken on the draft RTS, is a formal notification by the Commission to endorse the draft RTS with amendments; and
• the Commission’s letter contains all the changes that it intends to adopt in the draft RTS.

ESMA adds that it will immediately start work on its opinion on the proposed amendments to the draft RTS unless it receives a written reply from the Commission by 29 March 2016 stating that one of the above assumptions is incorrect.

In relation to the draft RTS on non-equity transparency ESMA also asks the Commission for clarification concerning liquidity assessments and pre-trade thresholds for bonds and derivatives.

View ESMA writes to European Commission on draft MiFID II RTS, 22 March 2016