On 22 May 2020, the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) submitted its response to the European Commission’s consultation on the review of the MiFID II/MiFIR regulatory framework, in which the Association’s recommendations on investor protection and capital markets and infrastructure have been outlined.

While the MiFID II/MiFIR framework is mostly working as intended, EFAMA believes that more can be done to encourage retail participation in the EU capital markets.

EFAMA has always been supportive of the main objectives of the MiFID II/MiFIR framework. For the most part, the framework is working as intended with provisions being appropriately regulated. EFAMA calls for targeted improvements such as to provide more flexibility to professional investors, to increase market transparency by mandating the creation of a consolidated tape for all financial instruments and to address data quality and data cost issues through a stricter implementation of existing rules.

In the response it is strongly suggested in making thematic Q&A updates on a yearly basis, with enough time for the industry to implement these changes. Moreover, in accordance with the principles of good regulation and with the revised powers of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), the industry and other impacted stakeholders should be able to comment on the proposed answers to questions, before those answers are published as final.

EFAMA urges the Commission and the ESAs to make use of their enforcement powers, to make sure that Member States and their relevant National Competent Authorities fully apply all the existing and future provisions of MiFID.

EFAMA’s press release can be found here.

EFAMA’s Response to the consultation can be found here.