The European Council have adopted the delay by one year of MiFID II and MiFIR, the latest step in formalising the move of the start date from 3 January 2017 to 3 January 2018. The press release can be found here. The adoption follows the approval by the European Parliament which was voted recently.

The energy and commodities sector is affected by MiFID II in several ways, including position limits, changes in the definition of a financial instrument, and the introduction of the “Organised Trading Facility” (OTF). However the key rules, around whether energy and commodity traders must set up MiFID regulated entities, have not yet been finalised. The “Ancillary Activity test”, found in Regulatory Technical Standard 20, has been passed back the to European Commission for further consideration.