MiFID 2: The Ancillary Business Exemption

Previous articles have discussed how the MiFID 2 package takes effect (with a few exceptions) from 3 January 2017. We still await key technical measures. Following ESMA's discussion, consultation and advice papers last year, ESMA published on 28 September 2015 the second set of final drafts of key Implementing and Regulatory Technical Standards (ITS and RTS) for the Commission to approve.

The Commission now has three months to consider the Standards and either accept them or propose changes. In practice, the changes ESMA has made from its drafts and the length of the report make it hard to believe the Commission will be able fully to assess the Standards within this period. As at 29 September, it had not published its views on the five Standards ESMA submitted on 29 June. In principle, though, it must respond on all the September Standards by 28 December, just over one year before MiFID 2 takes effect.