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MiFID II market rules will be postponed, says report


The European Commission has agreed to a delay on the reporting requirements due to come into effect under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and Regulation (MiFIR), according to the Financial Times . 

Members of the European Parliament agreed, in a private meeting, not to block requests from policymakers for a delay to introduction of the rules, the Financial Times said. 

The MEPs accepted that it was not practical to go ahead with only parts of the rules, sources familiar with the talks told the Financial Times. This will be formally communicated later this week, the sources said.

European Commission official Martin Merlin told MEPs this week that a delay was needed "if we want to have a smooth and effective implementation", Reuters reported.

"The simplest and most legally sound approach would be to delay the whole package by one year," Merlin said, according to Reuters.

In the same week, Steven Maijoor, chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), told the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) that it was now "unfeasible" to meet the timetable for many of the reporting requirements due to the difficulty investment firms face in adapting their IT systems in time.

"The building of some complex IT systems can only really take off when the final details are firmly set…and some of the most complex IT systems would need at least a year to be built," Maijoor said. "We have therefore raised these timing issues with the European Commission, and the fact that some IT systems will not be ready in January 2017, and the uncertainty this will create as they are needed for the execution of certain elements of MIFID II."

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