The European Commission (EC) has published a draft delegated regulation amending Delegated Regulation 2017/567 as regards the obligation to provide market data on a reasonable commercial basis, the determination of what constitutes a liquid market for equity instruments, and the definition of and disclosure for post-trade risk reduction (PTRR) services under the markets in financial instruments regulation (MiFIR).
The proposed amendments follow and seek to reflect the MiFIR reform aimed at enhancing data transparency, removing obstacles to the emergence of consolidated tapes, optimising the trading obligations, and prohibiting receiving payment for order flow and parallel amendments to MiFID II. In particular, they:
- Amend the provisions relating to the determination of what constitutes a 'liquid market' for the purposes of Articles 4, 5, and 14 of MiFIR by replacing the 'free float' criterion with the 'market capitalisation' criterion, and clarify certain other issues around the liquidity assessment for equity instruments.
- Delete provisions that clarify what constitutes a 'reasonable commercial basis' for trading venues and systematic internalisers.
- Delete the provision which specifies the size specific to the financial instrument for the purposes of the requirements applicable to systematic internalisers in respect of non-equity instruments.
- Specify what constitutes PTRR services for the purposes of the exemption laid down in Article 31(1) MiFIR.
- Delete publication requirements for portfolio compression services.
The deadline for comments is 5 September and the EC plans to adopt the delegated regulation in Q4. The draft delegated regulation is expressed to enter into force and apply generally 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, although certain aspects are stated to apply from 2 March 2026 and others from a date to be aligned with Article 27 of draft regulatory technical standards on the obligation to make market data available to the public on a reasonable commercial basis (C(2025) – 3103).
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