Eurofi Forum – Stockholm, 26-28 April

On the sidelines of public debates at the recent Eurofi Forum, Stéphane Giordano, Chairman of AMAFI, Arnaud Eard, Director of European and International Affairs, and several members of the European Action Commission met representatives from institutions, MEPs and delegates from the finance ministries of nine member states, the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and the US Treasury.

Discussions focused on current issues for AMAFI: EMIR, the Listing Act (AMAFI / 23-33) and the MiFIR review (AMAFI / 23-19).

• Regarding the EMIR, AMAFI advocated a prudent approach to the relocation of derivatives clearing in euros in order to preserve the competitiveness of European market participants and the attractiveness of the European Union’s markets. It therefore recommends a staggered implementation of the requirement for European institutions to hold an active account with a European central counterparty, without relocation thresholds, for three years, followed by a quantitative approach only if deemed necessary.

• On the Listing Act, AMAFI emphasised the crucial issue of sponsored research for mid-caps. While its recognition at European level is a welcome step, in AMAFI’s view, the governing code should be drawn up at the level of each Member State, rather than by ESMA, in order to take into account the specific features of local markets and foster their development. AMAFI also pointed out that the full rebundling of intermediation and research fees, as was the case before the implementation of MiFID II, could not be the only solution to the current lack of research coverage of mid-cap stocks, as the market has since undergone structural change.

• Finally, AMAFI also set out its priorities with respect to the MiFIR review, which is currently under negotiation in trilogue meetings, in particular with regard to the creation of a pre-trade consolidated tape for equities and the importance of properly calibrating equity and non-equity transparency regimes in order to avoid a liquidity flight to the UK. The aim is to enable the European Union to maintain a certain degree of autonomy in financing its economy.