On 3 June 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a supervisory briefing on ensuring compliance with the MiFIR pre-trade transparency requirements in commodity derivatives.
The briefing provides guidance to Member State competent authorities (NCAs) as regards supervisory and enforcement actions to ensure compliance with pre-trade transparency requirements for negotiated trades in commodity derivatives under MiFIR. The briefing’s purpose is to increase supervisory convergence among NCAs and provide a common timetable for the enforcement of the pre-trade transparency regime for negotiated trades in non-equity instruments, in particular with regard to commodity derivatives, with the overarching objective of ensuring a level playing field across EU trading venues.
ESMA is aware that the MiFIR provisions on pre-trade transparency for non-equity instruments in commodity derivatives, as clarified by its Q&As on negotiated trades, are not implemented in a consistent manner. ESMA is examining the provisions in relation to commodity derivatives currently set in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 2017/5835 to determine whether some of the concerns in respect of negotiated trades can be addressed via a potential change of the regulatory technical standards. As such a review takes time, ESMA’s briefing is designed to address and clarify inconsistencies in the short-term.