The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, has today published its Annual Report on waivers and deferrals for equity and non-equity instruments covering the year 2020.
The report includes an analysis based on waivers for which ESMA issued an opinion to the competent authority. It also provides an overview on the use of waivers and the application of the deferral regime in the European Economic Area (EEA) for trade transparency under MiFIR. Overall, ESMA observed no major change in market microstructure and waivers and deferrals regimes remain an integral part of the EEA market structure.
The withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the EU at the end of 2020 meant that this was a transitional year, and in order to take a forward-looking approach ESMA did not include UK data for 2020 in the report. Wherever possible, a comparison with the UK and with last year’s findings were included in the report, to reflect the UK’s impact on EEA markets prior to Brexit.
Next steps
ESMA will submit this report to the European Commission and will publish a similar report in the second half of 2022, covering the application of the waivers and deferral regime in 2021.
