FIA and FIA Europe Publish Report on CCPs, Trading Venues and Benchmarks

The Futures Industry Association ("FIA") and FIA Europe issued the sixth in a series of special reports that cover the technical requirements of MiFID II regulations by the European Securities Markets Authorities ("ESMA"). Specifically, the new report offers an overview of ESMA's proposals that require central counterparties ("CCPs") and trading venues to have nondiscriminatory and transparent access to one another as well as to benchmarks.

According to the report, Articles 35 through 37 of the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation provide that (i) CCPs must clear financial instruments on a nondiscriminatory and transparent basis regardless of the trading venue on which a transaction is executed, (ii) trading venues should provide, on request, trade feeds on a nondiscriminatory and transparent basis to a CCP that wishes to clear transactions traded on the relevant venue, and (iii) that both CCPs and trading venues be given nondiscriminatory access to benchmarks.

These Articles also task ESMA with drafting the necessary Regulatory Technical Standards that are required to deal with various technical issues surrounding open access. The report summarizes the ESMA Consultation Paper's key proposals concerning those standards.

Related news: FIA and FIA Europe Publish Report on Commodity Derivatives under MiFID II (March 12, 2015); FIA and FIA Europe Publish Fourth Report on ESMA Proposals Concerning High-Frequency Trading (February 18, 2015); FIA and FIA Europe Issue Third Report in a Series Covering ESMA MiFID II Regulations (February 4, 2015); FIA and FIA Europe Issue Their Second Report in a Series Covering ESMA MiFID II Regulations (January 22, 2015); FIA and FIA Europe Issue First in a Series of Special Reports Regarding Summaries of ESMA MiFID II Regulations (January 15, 2015).