On February 10th, 2016 the European Commission has proposed national competent authorities and market participants one additional year to comply with the rules set out in the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). The new deadline is January 3th 2018.

MiFID was created in response to the financial crisis. The program provides harmonised regulation for investment services across the financial market, investment intermediaries and trading venues in the European Union. MiFID also commissions financial markets to be more efficient, resilient and transparent.

However, an extension of MiFID II was necessary because the program has demonstrated that it features a complex infrastructure. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) also notified the European Commission that neither competent authorities, nor market participant, will have the necessary systems ready by January 3th 2017, the date by which the MiFID II package was initially scheduled to become operational.

The unforeseen postponement will not impact the timeline for the adoption of the ‘level II’ measures of MiFID II/MiFIR. The European Commission will proceed with their adoption irrespective of the new date of entry into application of MiFID II.