Under Article 54(2) of the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (“MiFIR”), an EU Central Counterparty (CCP) or trading venue may apply to its Competent Authority for a transitional arrangement in relation to exchange-traded derivatives, under which the open access requirements of Articles 35 or 36, respectively, of MiFIR would not apply until July 2020.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has received applications under Article 54(2) from the trading venues ICE Futures Europe and the London Metal Exchange (“LME”).
Having taken into account the risks resulting from the application of the access rights under Article 36 as regards exchange-traded derivatives to the orderly functioning of the trading venues referred to above, as required by MiFIR, the FCA has decided to agree a transitional arrangement for those entities. Accordingly, with effect from 3 January 2018, ICE Futures Europe and LME will not be required to consider open access requests made under Article 36 insofar as they relate to exchange-traded derivatives, until the expiry of the transitional period on 3 July 2020.
The Bank of England is the UK Competent Authority for UK-based CCPs. Information on the Bank’s handling of applications made to it may be found on the Bank’s website.