ESMA publishes draft rules for third-country firms under new MiFIR and MiFID II regimes

These draft technical standards are published following the changes to MiFIR and MiFID II regimes for the provision of investment services and activities in the EU by third-country firms, introduced by the Investment Firms Regulation (EU) No 2019/2033 (IFR) and Directive (EU) 2019/2034 (IFD).  

These changes include new reporting requirements for third-country firms to ESMA on an annual basis, and include the possibility for ESMA to ask third-country firms to provide data relating to all orders and transactions in the EU. New annual reporting requirements from branches of third-country firms to NCAs have also been introduced.

Draft Technical Standards

ESMA has developed under Article 46(7) and (8) of MiFIR:

• Draft RTS to specify the information that third-country firms must provide to ESMA for the registration in the ESMA register of third-country firms, and for the information that third-country firms have to report annually to ESMA; and
• Draft ITS to specify the format in which the information for the registration of the firm and for the annual report to ESMA should be submitted.

While branches of third-country firms authorised under MiFID II are supervised by the relevant regulator of the authorising Member State, the IFD amends MiFID II to provide for further reporting obligations on such branches to the Member State authorities where they are established. In accordance with Article 41(5) of MiFID II, ESMA developed:

1. Draft ITS to specify the format in which the new flow of information provided by MIFID II is to be reported to NCAs by branches of third-country firms.

Next Steps

The draft Technical Standards have been submitted to the European Commission for the adoption of the final legal text.