The European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA")
has launched two major projects at the request of a number of
National Competent Authorities ("NCAs"): the Instrument
Reference Data Project and the Trade Repositories Project. The
former envisages ESMA providing a central facility in relation to
instrument and trading data and the calculation of transparency and
liquidity thresholds required in relation to the Markets in
Financial Instruments Regulation ("MiFIR"), while under
the latter ESMA is to provide a single access point to trade
repositories data under EMIR.
The request involves a delegation of some of the NCAs' tasks
related to data collection requirements under MiFIR and the Market
Abuse Directive to ESMA, as well as the creation of a central
access point for regulators to data of the EU's six trade
repositories. ESMA will collect data directly from market
infrastructures, and make it available to NCAs and the public
through a centralized system.
