MiFID II one year delay
The European Commission has proposed a one year delay for MiFID II.
The EC has proposed granting national competent authorities and market participants one additional year to comply with the rules set out in the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, known as MiFID II. The new deadline is set to 3 January 2018.
The reason for the extension lies in the complex technical infrastructure that needs to be set up for the MiFID II package to work effectively. The European Commission was informed by ESMA that neither the competent authorities (NCAs), nor the market participants, would have the necessary systems ready by 3 January 2017.
Although the press release states that “this extension will not have an impact on the timeline for adoption of the ‘level II’ implementing measures under MiFID II/MiFIR” it is expected that the Council will probably grant a one year delay for the implementation too. However at this stage the proposed changes in the legislation do not cover changes in Article 93(1) MiFID II that requires the Member States to transpose MiFID II in national legislation by 3 July 2016.
The full text of the European Commission’s press release is available here.