ESMA has announced that the EMIR validation rule changes originally planned for February will now be applied on 8 March 2021 instead of 1 February. The announcement can be found here and the rules here. The reason given for the delay is to align with changes that will be implemented due to the end of the Brexit transitional phase. The corresponding changes from the UK side were announced by the FCA a few a weeks ago (see here). The changes include modifications to the validation rules that are phased, with some of those currently scheduled to apply on 1 February according to the FCA spreadsheet.

ESMA has also added UK venues to their opinions on third country venues with respect to post trade transparency and position limits under MIFID II(see here). The issue of such recognition, for example in relation to “Economically equivalent OTC” deals under the position limits rules, was set out in a revised statement a few weeks ago (see here).