There are now less than 6 months to go until MiFID II starts to apply, on 3rd January 2018. There is activity to report from both ESMA and the FCA.

ESMA has now published many numbers required under the transparency regulation to determine if certain trades are subject to waivers of various types. The press release can be found here, the explanation here and the document here. The calculations are used to determine, for each type of non equity instrument, the Large In Scale (LIS) and Size Specific to Instrument (SSTI) thresholds. These are used to determine whether a waiver or deferral can be applied to the instrument in terms of the transparency obligations under RTS 2.

The FCA has published a policy statement (here) which covers the responses to many consultation and also publishes most handbook changes across a very wide range of topics. This post on the Norton Rose Fulbright web site provides a summary of the document. While many of the contents will only apply to the investment firms, energy and commodity market participants should examine the parts that the FCA intend to apply to them as non MiFID firms. The FCA have also opened their 6th MiFID II consultation, which can be found here. It covers various aspects of MiFID II application such as compensation, decisions,penalties and enforcement and prospectus rules.