The future of MiFID II in the EU and the UK

The European Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) are carrying out a review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 2014/65/EU (MiFID II) and Regulation (EU) 600/2014 (MiFIR) that could result in significant changes to the regime. Some amendments have already been made to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In the UK the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is carrying out its own review. This article highlights some of the key changes and aspects under review and considers how the EU and UK regimes have diverged and are likely to diverge as a consequence.

MiFID II and MiFIR contain numerous review provisions. To date ESMA has delivered reports on several aspects of the regime and proposed a number of changes including:

  • the development of an EU-wide consolidated tape for...