In October 2011, the European Commission released a proposal to amend and extend the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), referred to as MiFID II. The MiFID II proposals consist of revisions to MiFID, along with the introduction of the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR).

Whilst MiFID sought to increase competition and consumer protection, the purpose of MiFID II is to make financial markets more efficient, resilient and transparent and to improve investor protection, with the reform being driven by commitments made by the EU to tackle less regulated and more opaque parts of the financial system at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh in 2009.

MiFID II will impose a series of changes, including, inter alia:

• creating of a new type of trading venue, the organised trading facility (OTF);

• extending the scope of products and activities that are subject to regulation;

• prohibiting the use of inducements for discretionary asset management and ‘independent’ advice;

• introducing stricter corporate governance requirements; and

• extending market transparency and transaction reporting requirements.

On 13 May 2014, the Council of the European Union announced that MiFID II had been adopted, following on from the adoption of MiFID II in April 2014 by the European Parliament. Both MiFID II and MiFIR are expected to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in the second quarter of 2014 and will, for the most part, become applicable 30 months later. It is expected that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) will publish a discussion paper on the technical standards shortly. Following the responses to the discussion paper, ESMA will publish a consultation paper on draft technical standards later in 2014 or early in 2015. Market participants are encouraged to respond both to the discussion paper and the consultation paper.

MiFID II is being introduced in a climate of wider regulatory reform, and implementation will overlap with numerous other legislative changes, including the Capital Requirements Directive IV, the proposals for Benchmarks regulations, the European Market Infrastructure Regulation and the Market Abuse Directive II. Given this comprehensive spread of regulatory reform, and the magnitude of commercial and operational impacts that MiFID II will have, successful implementation will require early involvement and a thorough impact assessment.

Robert Coward also contributed to this article.