On November 27, the European Parliament published a press release clarifying its stance on a potential delay of implementation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and, by default, the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR), which expands on the principles in MiFID II and provides detailed rules.

In the press release, Parliament states that its MiFID II negotiation team has informed the European Commission (EC) that it is ready to accept a one-year delay for MiFID II implementation. However, this is subject to the following conditions:

• the EC must adopt the Level 2 measures required under MiFID II as soon as possible;

• the EC and the European Securities and Markets Authority need to develop a clear roadmap for implementation, in particular, for the establishment of the necessary information technology systems, the complexity of which are the rationale for the one-year’s delay; and

• the EC should report regularly to Parliament on the progress toward implementation, including reporting timelines and key milestones.

It now seems highly likely that the entire suite of MiFID II and MiFIR legislation will be deferred by a full year, moving implementation to January 3, 2018.

A copy of the press release is available here.