On September 28, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its final report (Final Report), accompanied by draft regulatory and implementing technical standards (RTS and ITS) on the provision of investment services and activities in the European Union (EU) by third-country firms under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) (600/2014) and the associated Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR).

The draft RTS and ITS have been submitted to the European Commission for purposes of implementing certain changes to the MiFID II and MiFIR regimes introduced by the recently-adopted Investment Firms Regulation and the Investment Firms Directive. Such changes include an annual reporting requirement for third-country firms to ESMA, the discretion for ESMA to request third-party country firms to provide data relating to all orders and transactions in the EU and annual reporting requirements for branches of third-country firms.

ESMA consulted on the technical standards in January. Annex III of the Final Report provides a summary of feedback to the consultation paper, in addition to ESMA’s response.

The Final Report is available here.

ESMA’s prior consultation on the MiFID II third-country firm regime is available here.