Europe starts work on MiFID technical standards

PARIS – The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has begun the mammoth task of consulting on its own technical standards and on the technical advice it will deliver to the European Commission, both for the implementation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and Regulation (MiFID II and MiFIR). ESMA published a 311-page consultation document on the technical advice, which must be delivered to the commission by December 2014. It also issued a 533-page discussion paper on its own regulatory and implementing technical standards (RTS and ITS), to help shape a further consultation paper that will be issued in late 2014 or early 2015. The closing date for responses to both these initial papers is August 2014.