25 May 2016

ESMA clarifies the reporting of reference data under MAR from 3 July 2016

Following the agreed later implementation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II and Regulation, some of the MAR provisions will be aligned to the new MiFID II timelines.

The agreement on MIFID II provides for postponement of the application date of certain provisions of MAR, in particular the Article 4 thereof until the same date. Specifically, the requirements set out under Article 4(2) and (3) will apply from 3 January 2018, whilst the application date of the requirement in Article 4(1) remains 3 July 2016.

The requirement of MAR Article 4(1) for notification of the financial instruments reference data is, therefore, envisaged to apply from 3 July 2016. According to this requirement market operators of regulated markets and investment firms and market operators operating a multilateral trading facility (MTF) or an organised trading facility (OTF) are obliged to notify their competent authorities (CAs) of any financial instruments for which a request for admission to trading on their trading venue is made, which is admitted to trading, or which is traded for the first time. However, since the concept of OTF will only enter into force on 3 January 2018, as set out in Article 39(4) of MAR, the reporting obligation under Article 4(1) of MAR will apply from 3 July 2016 only to market operators of regulated markets and investment firms and market operators that operate an MTF.

The respective operational arrangements, new data formats, IT systems and infrastructures required to be put in place by CAs, ESMA and concerned market participants for Article 4 of MAR are essentially the same as those required for implementation of provisions of Article 27 of MiFIR. In order to minimise the burden of reporting, ESMA agreed to implement these requirements in the same manner through technical standards developed under MAR and MiFIR, which were submitted to the Commission on 28 September 2015.

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