Written by Ciara Davies

On 27 October 2020, ESMA published a press release announcing that it has updated the list of third-country venues, in the context of the opinions on post-trade transparency and position limits under MiFID II.

ESMA assessed UK venues against the criteria of opinions relating to the transparency and the position of limits provisions, following the statement it made on the impact of Brexit on the application of MiFID II and MiFIR. The UK venues have received a positive assessment and have been added to the Annex to the opinion related to post-trade transparency and the Annex to the opinion related to position limits.

From 1 January 2021:

EU investment firms will not be required to make transactions public in the EU via an EU-approved publications arrangement if they are executed on one of the UK trading venues on the transparency list.

Commodity derivative contracts traded on UK trading venues on the position limits list will not be considered as economically equivalent over-the-counter contracts for the EU position limit.

 ESMA’s guidance on the Annex to ESMA’s opinion determining third-country trading venues for the purpose of transparency under MiFIR. This will take into account the feedback received from market participants on the identification of bonds and US treasuries and on the treatment of venues without a market identifier code.