The European Commission have today called for a one year delay to the implementation of MiFID II, from January 2017 to January 2018. A statement by Commission officials has been reported on several web sites, including this article on the Bloomberg website and this article on the Reuters website. The matter will now be disused with ESMA and the European Parliament.

Calls for a delay have increased in recent weeks, although these have focused on specific aspects of the rules, such as position limits. It remains to be seen if there is any delay at all, a delay of some aspects of the legislation, or a general delay to the entire rule set.

The reason given for the delay is that it is felt that there is no longer sufficient time to be ready for the original deadline, given the relatively short interval between the finalisation of the various Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) and the due date. Market Participants may wish to take this on board, and use any delay as an opportunity to be better prepared, rather than to simply delay the start of compliance work.