On January 9, 2018, ESMA announced that it will delay the publication of data for January 2018 on the double volume cap mechanism introduced by the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation from January 3, 2018. The DVC mechanism introduced by MiFIR seeks to ensure that dark pool trading using waivers from pre-trade transparency requirements does not unduly harm price formation. It does so by capping the amount of trading for orders placed in systems which are based on a trading methodology using the reference price waiver and certain transactions using the negotiated price waiver.

ESMA expects to work with national regulators and trading venues to address issues it has identified with the quality and completeness of the data it has so far received from trading venues. It hopes to publish the data in March 2018.

The press release is available at: https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/library/esma71-99-925_esma_dvc_delay.pdf.

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