Volume Cap Mechanism

The Suspensions File includes aggregated information at ISIN level on the instruments that, on a given date, are either suspended or for which a previously issued suspension must be revoked. Note that suspensions are applied at EU Level for a period of 3 months.

A. Scope of instruments included in the Suspensions File

Instruments are included in the Suspensions File if, on a given publication date E, they meet either of the following conditions:

1) The ISIN is suspended. This includes (a) ISINs which are suspended on Publication Date E (Expected Suspension Start Date > E, new suspension); OR

2) The suspension of an ISIN is revoked on date E.

The Suspensions File includes all the history of the suspensions. The column “As of Date” provides information on the date on which the record is valid.

When computing the suspensions, ESMA considers trading volumes in the Union per financial instrument in the previous 12 months.

B. Explanations on the fields included in the Suspensions File

Field “As of Date”

The field is populated with the date on which the record is valid. It coincides with one of the dates on which ESMA has published the VC results or with the date of an extraordinary publication in case ESMA identified significant data quality issues affecting the VC results. 

Field “Suspension(s) expected to be triggered”

On a given date E, the field “Suspension(s) expected to be triggered” can take the following values:

1) “Suspended”: the ISIN is suspended at EU Level. The fields “Expected Suspension Start Date” and “Expected Suspension End Date” provide the details of the suspension period for that ISIN. The suspension should start at 8:00 am CET on the suspension start date and it should end at the close of trading day on the suspension end date; 

2) “Suspension Revoked”: the ISIN was suspended in the past and, based on new data available up to date E, it should not have been suspended. The suspension should then be revoked. The field “Expected Suspension Start Date” corresponds to the date on which the suspension should have been triggered and the field “Expected Suspension End Date” provides the date on which the lift of the suspension should become effective. The previous suspension should end at 8:00 am CET on the suspension end date. 

Fields “Expected suspension start date” and “Expected suspension end date”

Those fields are populated with the start date and end date of the expected suspension. 

C. How to use filters to identify specific information

1. ISINs that are suspended on a given publication date E

Example: in order to identify the outstanding suspensions, i.e. (1) ISINs that should be suspended on XX January 2026 

Filter 1: “As of Date” = XX January 2026

Filter 2: “Expected suspension start date” = “XX January 2026” 

To further distinguish between the suspension periods, use the column “Expected Suspension Start Date” and “Expected Suspension End Date”. The fields above can be used to identify suspensions that will start following a new publication as well as historical (i.e. already expired) suspensions. 

Note that Suspension period is 3 months and ISINs on which no new suspension applies following the current month's calculations no longer appear in the Suspensions File for the current publication date. 

2. ISINs for which the suspension is expected to be revoked on a given publication date E

Revocations cases are exceptional cases and can only be triggered if between scheduled quarterly VC publications (January, April, July, October), ESMA has been made aware of a significant data quality issue that affected the VC results.

Filter 1: “As of Date” = XX MM YYYY (the date coincides with the date of the extraordinary publication)

Filter 2: “Suspension(s) expected to be triggered” = “Suspension Revoked”

Filter 3: “Expected suspension end date” = XX MM YYYY

3. Suspension history of a given ISIN

Example: in order to identify the different suspension status of a given ISIN XYZ over time, the following steps should be undertaken:

Filter 1: “ISIN” = XYZ

There is one record per publication date, as identified in the column “As of Date” with the status of the ISIN on each date.