On May 4, 2016, ESMA published a Final Report on the revised draft Regulatory Technical Standard on transaction reporting under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation. ESMA is proposing amendments to the final draft RTS submitted to the European Commission on September 28, 2015. ESMA's final draft RTS included a non-definitive list of example transactions which would not attract the reporting obligation under MiFIR, but that list that was silent on acquisitions or disposals that were solely the result of a transfer of collateral. The amendment updates the list to include collateral transfers as a type of "transaction" that should not be reported under MiFID II. The definition of transaction in the RTS is based on the concepts of "acquisition" or "disposal" of a financial instrument. ESMA concluded that including transfers of collateral, as a reportable transaction, would lead to a significant increase in reported data that is not susceptible to market abuse which would serve only to burden the market. Details of collateral are already reported under EMIR and will be reported under the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation for some transactions. ESMA has submitted the Final Report to the Commission with the intention of having it taken into account in the context of the Commission's endorsement of the final draft RTS.

The update and final report is available at: https://www.esma.europa.eu/press-news/esma-news/esma-proposes-amend-draft-mifir-standard-transaction-reporting.

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