On 19 November 2019, Steven Maijoor, Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) stated during a keynote address in Frankfurt that the European Union is planning to re-examine certain provisions in MiFID II with the aim of making some possible near-and medium term changes to the framework legislation.

ESMA’s Chair acknowledged that while MiFID II achieved some of its goals there were equally areas where improvements needed to be made:

• On commissions and inducements, the European Commission working with ESMA will present a report (in Q1 2020) to the European Parliament and Council outlining its conclusions on the impact of disclosure requirements in MiFID II related to fees, commissions and non-monetary benefits, known inducements.
• On market intervention, the Commission’s report will also focus on experiences learned on the use of product intervention measures (such as those used in CFDs aimed at the retail market).
• ESMA will continue to emphasise the downside impact of costs on investors’ returns, while noting that this will remain the key element of investor protection framework.
• ESMA will continue to work together with national supervisors to ensure the proper application of the regulations above and to work on regulatory changes when needed.

ESMA is also working on assessing the MiFID II transparency regime, covering issues, such as the equity and non-equity transparency regime, the double volume cap and the derivatives trading obligation.

The Keynote address can be found here.