ESMA_QA_1647

Status: ✅ Answer Published

Link to ESMA Q&A tool: https://www.esma.europa.eu/publications-data/questions-answers/1647

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Regulatory Context

Regulation : MIF2

Level 1 Regulation: Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) Directive 2014/65/EU- Secondary Markets

Level 2 Regulation: No information available

Level 3 Regulation: No information available

Topic: Multilateral and bilateral systems

Subject Matter: Organized Trading facilities OTFs -

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Question

Submission Date: 03 April 2017

Can an SI and an OTF be operated by the same legal entity when they do not trade the same instruments or class of instruments (e.g. an SI in equities and an OTF in derivatives)?

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ESMA Answer

Answer Date: 03-04-2017

[ESMA 70-872942901-38 MiFID II MiFIR market structures Q&A, Q&A 5.15] No. ESMA is of the view that the very general wording of Article 20(4) of MiFID II introduces a blanket prohibition of the combination of the OTF and SI activities by the same legal entity across asset classes and instruments. This blanket prohibition also addresses circumstances under which an investment firm would be operating an OTF and an SI in different asset classes, while being potentially subject to similar conflicts of interests as the ones associated with being an OTF and an SI in the same asset class or instrument. This would be the case, for instance, with an investment firm operating an OTF in equity derivatives while being an SI in the underlying equities.

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This document was automatically extracted from the ESMA EMIR Q&A database.