Trillions in Stock and Derivative Trades at Risk Over New EU Rules
- EU working on equivalence decisions for law’s Jan. 3 start
- Ashurst’s Cant says rules could result in ‘fortress Europe’
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Friday, March 24, 2017. U.S. stocks pared the worst weekly drop of the year, while Treasuries and the dollar continued to churn in a tight range as investors watched developments in Washington to gauge the prospects for the Trump administration's legislative agenda. Oil rose for the first time this week.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/BloombergTrading in blue-chip stocks and trillions of dollars of derivatives could be thrown into turmoil by the European Union’s MiFID II regulatory overhaul unless the bloc acts fast to give financial firms full freedom to transact in foreign markets.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is racing to determine whether the rules in countries such as the U.S., Switzerland and Singapore are as tough as those that start in Europe on Jan. 3. Without such equivalence decisions, MiFID II could disrupt trading on platforms in those countries, fracturing global markets and potentially driving up costs.