On Thursday, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched a public consultation “on certain technical issues” to inform its upcoming manual on post-trade transparency.

The European Union financial markets regulator explained that the manual will be a Level 3 guidance which will provide clarification on “issues related to post-trade transparency to improve the consistency and usability of the information published.” In addition, the manual will provide more insight into reporting to ESMA via the Financial Instruments Reference Data System for the performance of post-trade transparency calculations.

ESMA’s call for public feedback on the proposed manual comes two days after the European Commission (EC) adopted its proposed amendments to the regulatory standards (RTS) on equity transparency (RTS 1) and non-equity transparency (RTS 2). In late December last year, EMSA issued a positive opinion to the EC's proposed amendments to the standards.

“The EC’s proposed amendments suggest introducing a new flag in RTS 2, [amending] the definitions of certain fields in the post-trade transparency reporting, mainly in RTS 2, as well as transitional provisions including postponing the application date of certain provisions to 1 January 2024 in both RTS 1 and 2,” ESMA explained in a document outlining its opinion on the amendments.

More on the ESMA Post-Trade Transparency Manual

According to ESMA, the planned manual will include in one single document legal references to its three previous guidance statements on the subject.

The first or Level 1 is on the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) and Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II . The second or Level 2 is on the RTS1 and RTS 2 while the third is based on its various opinions and guidelines (including its guidance included in previously published Questions and Answers reports).

“This new Level 3 tool will be a Manual which is intended purely as a practical tool with the clear purpose of supporting the practical implementation of the applicable post-transparency legal requirements to stakeholders. The manual does not provide EU law interpretation or contain supervisory elements,” ESMA clarified in the consultation paper.

The regulator said it will stop receiving comments on the consultation paper on March 31, 2023. In addition, it intends to publish the manual after the end of the consultation period and after the European Parliament and Council’s three-month scrutiny period for the reviewed RTS 1 and 2.