ESMA yesterday published nine opinions on position limits proposed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). These set the initial limits on those contracts which relate to metals and agricultural contracts traded on certain UK venues.  At the same time, ESMA issued this master list of contracts on which bespoke limits are due to be set (that is, contracts considered to be “liquid” and therefore not subject to the default limit of 2,500 lots). The page with links to the opinion documents can be found here as well as on the master list.

The opinions join the three that were issued in August relating to agricultural contracts traded on the MATIF exchange (see here). Each of the nine contracts see one “spot month” limit and one “other months” limit. Unlike the limits set in August, these each comprise one value, rather than changing over the course of the month.  Last month, ESMA announced that National Competent Authorities (NCAs) would be permitted to publish position limits directly without first waiting for ESMA to issue an opinion (see here). This is due to the number of limits to be published before they go into operation on 3rd January 2018.  Last week the FCA published an updated master master of bespoke limits within their own jurisdiction, as well as a list of other contracts which would be subject to aggregated de minimis limits (see here).