The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, has updated today the list of trading venues which have a temporary exemption from the open access provisions under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR). The updated list includes an extension of the exemption for five venues until 4 January 2023.
MiFIR allows firms to freely choose where to trade and clear their products, however trading venues and Central Counterparties (CCPs) may notify ESMA and their national competent authority of their intention to temporarily opt-out from the access provisions for exchange-traded derivatives (ETDs) provided that certain conditions are met. For trading venues where the annual notional amount of ETDs traded on the venue falls below a threshold of EUR 1,000,000 million, the exemption must be approved by ESMA.
The initial exemption under Article 36(5) of MiFIR applies for a period of 30 months and can be extended for subsequent periods of 30 months, provided that the ETD activity of the trading venue remains below the threshold. ESMA has approved the extension of the opt-out of five EU venues, for a further 30-month period until 4 January 2023. Those venues are Athens Stock Exchange (Greece), GPW (Poland), MEFF (Spain), Nasdaq Stockholm (Sweden) and OMIP (Portugal).
The list will be updated in case of any changes, including where an exemption is renewed.
In 2018, ESMA published for the first time the list of trading venues benefiting from the exemption, after having approved the access opt-out for five EU trading venues.
