On September 24, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a consultation paper examining transaction reporting and reference data obligations under the Market in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) (the Consultation Paper).

Since MiFIR’s implementation in 2018, ESMA has identified areas of improvement to simplify the current reporting system and promote transparency.

The key areas addressed by ESMA in the Consultation Paper include:

  • requiring transaction reporting from Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) management companies and alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) that provide one or more Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) services to third-parties;
  • applying consistency throughout MiFID regarding the use of certain words (e.g., users, members and participants);
  • revising the ToTV (traded on a trading venue) concept;
  • obligating all instruments traded off-venue where the underlying is a benchmark to fall within the scope of transaction reporting;
  • clarifying requirements under the Market Abuse Regulation and MiFID to remove inconsistency surrounding reference data obligations; and
  • merging European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and MiFIR reporting regimes while considering EMIR Refit where there are common elements (e.g., identification and classification of instruments), while maintaining fundamental differences necessary for the financial stability of the EU.

ESMA calls for all stakeholders within the securities markets, particularly investment firms and credit institutions performing investment services and activities and trading venues to respond to the Consultation Paper.

The deadline for comments on the Consultation Paper is November 20. ESMA intends to submit its final review report to the European Commission in the first quarter of 2021.

The Consultation Paper is available here.