03 June 2005

FBE response on draft Commission Document on reporting transactions in financial instruments

The European Banking Federation (FBE) responded to the draft Commission Document on Cooperation and Enforcement on MiFID. The FBE criticizes that the document needs to clarify that the reporting requirement will only apply to those instruments admitted to trading. Also, the definition of “transaction” needs to be appropriately narrowed down which could be best achieved by creating a positive list.

Other concerns can be summarized as followed:

Definition of “execution venue”, which is not relevant to Article 25 and contradicts the one to be provided for Article 21, should be dropped;

The determination of the relevant market for the purpose of Article 25 of MiFID should be consistent with the approach taken in the Prospectus Directive with respect to the home competent authority;

Implementation of the provisions with respect to the reporting channels must ensure that existing systems of reporting continue to be used to the largest extent possible;

Firms should not have to report client identity to the authorities on an automatic basis;

We support using the existing internationally recognised codes ISO or SWIFT as the basis for the exchange of information between competent authorities; and

Any proposal to deviate from CESR’s advice by establishing a central database should be justified on the basis of a clear cost-benefit analysis and should not be pursued further unless it will result in very clear net benefits.

Document

© FBE