European Securities And Markets Authority Publishes Final Guidelines On The Commodity Derivatives Definition

On October 21, 2015, ESMA published translations of its Guidelines on the application of the definition of commodity derivatives under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (known as MiFID I). The Guidelines aim to provide a common, uniform and consistent application of the definition of commodity derivatives. There is no commonly adopted definition of derivatives in the EU under MiFID I and ESMA was concerned that this would lead to the inconsistent application of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation where it refers to the MiFID commodity derivatives definition. The Guidelines are also relevant to the reporting obligations under the Regulation on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency, known as REMIT. The Guidelines aim to ensure continuity when MiFID II replaces MiFID I from January 3, 2017. The Guidelines were initially published on May 6, 2015 with ESMA's final report and feedback, and applied from August 7, 2015.