MiFID II provides for the possibility of establishment of a consolidated tape (CT) both for equity as well as for non-equity instruments. In September 2015 ESMA submitted draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) (RTS 13) specifying the scope of the equity tape and this was subsequently endorsed by the European Commission on 2 June 2016.

Given the complexity of establishing and operating a non-equity tape and bearing in mind that the provisions on the non-equity tape of Article 65(2) of MiFID II will only apply from September 2019, ESMA has decided to deliver the draft RTS specifying the scope of the non-equity tape at this later stage.

ESMA consulted on the draft RTS from 3 October to 5 December 2016. ESMA reports that there was broad support for its proposals and therefore its main approach has been maintained. However, ESMA has made some changes to the draft RTS in order to simplify the identification of the approved publication arrangements (APAs) and trading venues that have to be included in the CT by replacing the approach based on market share of APAs and trading venues with a minimum coverage ratio that the consolidated tape provider (CTP) has to meet.

The draft RTS specify:

• the possibility for CTPs to specialise in one or some asset classes; and
• the APAs and trading venues that have to be included in the CT based on a coverage ratio of 80% of all transactions published in an asset class in the EU that CTP has to meet.

The final draft RTS have been submitted to the European Commission. The Commission has three months in which to decide whether the endorse them.

In September 2015 ESMA submitted draft RTS specifying the scope of the equity tape that was subsequently endorsed by the Commission on 2 June 2016.

View MiFID II: ESMA issues final specifications for non-equity tape, 31 March 2017