The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, published today the Final Report covering mandates under the MiFIR Review on bond trade transparency and reasonable commercial basis (RCB).

The report includes the amendments to regulatory technical standards (RTS) on the mandates for bonds, structured finance products (SFPs) and emission allowances (EUA). Regarding the bond deferral regime, ESMA has performed a new data analysis, focusing on metrics such as the average daily volumes, to improve the deferral regime initially proposed in the public consultation.

The proposed pre- and post-trade transparency requirements for non-equity instruments are designed to ensure a high level of transparency whilst ensuring that liquidity providers are protected from undue risk. The RTS also ensures that the new deferral regime is in place ahead of the go live of the bond consolidated tape.

Regarding the new mandate on RCB, the report covers the obligation to make pre- and post-trade data available on an RCB. The fees of market data will need to be based on the cost of producing and disseminating the market data and a reasonable margin.

The RTS is designed to ensure that market data is available to all market participants in an accessible, fair and non-discriminatory manner and this will be fundamental to guarantee a proper implementation of the MiFIR Review. More information on the changes due to MiFID II and MiFIR Review can be found in the ESMA dedicated webpage.