The data which is published on a voluntary basis covers the total number of trades and total volume over the period January to June 2021 for the purpose of the systematic internaliser (SI) calculations under MiFID II for:
- 22,491 equity and equity-like instruments;
- 113,771 bonds; and
- 4,818 sub-classes of derivatives (including equity derivatives, interest rate derivatives, commodity derivatives, emission allowance and derivatives thereof ).
The SI test shall be performed by 15 August 2021.
The data is made available through the SI register in excel files and for equity, equity-like instruments and bonds also through FITRS in the XML files with publication date 30 July 2021 (link available here).
The results for equity and equity-like instruments and bonds are published only for instruments for which trading venues submitted data for at least 95% of all trading days over the 6-month observation period. The data publications also incorporate OTC trading to the extent it has been reported to ESMA. The publication includes data for instruments traded or available for trading during the reference period considered.
Background
According to Article 4(1)(20) of Directive 2014/65/EU (MiFID II) investment firms dealing on own account when executing client orders over the counter (OTC) on an organised, frequent systematic and substantial basis are subject to the mandatory SI regime.
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 2017/565 specifies thresholds determining what constitutes frequent, systematic and substantial OTC trading. In particular, investment firms are required to assess whether they are SIs in a specific instrument (for equity and equity-like instruments, bonds, ETCs and ETNs and SFPs) or for a (sub-) class of instruments (for derivatives, securitised derivatives and emission allowances) on a quarterly basis based on data from the previous six months. For each specific instrument/sub-class, an investment firm is required to compare the trading it undertakes on its own account compared to the total volume and number of transactions executed in the European Union (EU). If the investment firm exceeds the relative thresholds it will be deemed an SI and will have to fulfil the SI-specific obligations. ESMA, upon request of market participants and on a voluntary basis, decided to compute the total volume and number of transactions executed in the EU in order to help market participants in the performance of the test since that data is essential for the operation of the SI regime and is not otherwise easily available.
