On May 24, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a call for evidence on position limits and position management in commodity derivatives.

The call for evidence has been launched so that ESMA can provide advice to the European Commission for its report on the impact of position limits and position management on commodity derivatives markets by March 31, 2020 (in accordance with a revised timeline agreed with the European Commission and Article 90(1) of the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II)).

ESMA’s call for evidence is seeking stakeholders’ input on the impact of position limits on liquidity, market abuse, and orderly pricing and settlement conditions in commodity derivatives markets. Furthermore, stakeholders are invited to share their experience of the application of the MiFID II position limit and position management provisions, explain how trading in commodity derivatives may have been impacted, either positively or negatively, by this new regime and provide thoughts for potential amendments.

ESMA requests that feedback is provided by July 5. ESMA intends to consult on its draft report to the European Commission in the last quarter of 2019 with a view to finalizing the report by the end of March 2020.

The call for evidence is available here.