On April 10, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published updated results of the double volume cap (DVC) mechanism on its website—for the period of March 1, 2017 to February 28, 2018, and for already published DVCs.

The DVC mechanism is set out in the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) and is designed to limit the amount of “dark” trading under certain equity waivers, meaning trading that relies on the reference price waiver and the negotiated transaction waiver to avoid MiFIR transparency requirements.

In the updated DVC mechanism data, the number of new breaches is 47 equities for the 8 percent cap—which applies to all trading venues—and 8 equities for the 4 percent cap, which only applies to individual trading venues.

ESMA has received corrections to past DVC publications from trading venues that render a limited number of historic breaches incorrect; suspensions in relation to trading of such instruments under the waivers should be lifted. Conversely, 83 new breaches of the 8 percent cap and 18 breaches of the 4 percent cap have been identified for the same period. Trading under the waivers for those instruments should be suspended from April 13 to October 13.

Further background regarding the DVC mechanism is available in the Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest edition of March 9, which concerns ESMA’s March 7 press release.

The updated public register regarding the DVC mechanism is available here.

ESMA’s announcement in relation to the updated DVC register is available here.