On November 21, MFA submitted the linked cover letter and reply form in response to certain questions posed by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in response to its Discussion Paper on how to implement the derivatives trading obligation (TO) under the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR).
MFA’s overarching recommendation is for ESMA to align the scope of the TO with the scope of the CFTC’s “made available to trade” (MAT) regime to ease administrative burdens for market participants subject to the trading obligation in both jurisdictions, and to ensure cross-border harmonization such that the derivative contracts subject to the CFTC’s trade execution requirement as MAT swaps will also be subject to the TO and vice versa.
