Articles 35 and 36 of MiFIR and the associated regulatory Technical Standards (RTS 15) and Delegated Act legislate for open access between trading venues and CCPs so that market participants can choose a CCP when trading on a specific venue, and so that a user of a CCP has a choice of execution venue.

Articles 35 and 36 permit the start some of the requirements for all Exchange Traded Derivatives (ETDs) to be delayed for up to 30 months in the event that it is assessed that introducing the rules would lead to inappropriate risk. This week the European Commission published this ruling stating that such a blanket delay is not required.

Later in the week, ESMA published an updated version of the “Market Structure” questions and answers document, which can be found here. Four new answers have been added on the topic, starting on page 45. These relate to venues and CCPs applying for more specific delays to the application of the requirements.