Russia: Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the EU on the imposition of restrictive measures against eight EU nationals

The European Union condemns the decision of the Russian authorities to ban eight European Union nationals from entering the territory of the Russian Federation.

This entry ban includes the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, Vice President of the European Commission Věra Jourová, as well as six EU Member States’ officials from Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia and Sweden. The European Union stands in solidarity with all of these individuals. Russia’s actions will not deter the European Union from continuing to stand up for human rights, democracy and international law, nor from holding those responsible for violations and abuses of human rights to account.

This decision, which directly targets the European Union and its Member States, is unacceptable, devoid of any legal justification and baseless. It serves to underline that the Russian Federation has so far chosen the path of confrontation instead of seeking to reverse the negative trajectory of EU-Russia relations.

Russia: Joint Statement by the President of the European Council, the President of the European Commission, and the President of the European Parliament on the imposition of restrictive measures against eight EU nationals

We condemn in the strongest possible terms today’s decision of the Russian authorities to ban eight European Union nationals from entering the Russian territory. This includes the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, Vice President of the European Commission Věra Jourová, as well as six EU Member States’ officials. This action is unacceptable, lacks any legal justification and is entirely groundless. It targets the European Union directly, not only the individuals concerned.

This decision is the latest, striking demonstration of how the Russian Federation has chosen confrontation with the EU instead of agreeing to redress the negative trajectory of our bilateral relations.

The EU reserves the right to take appropriate measures in response to the Russian authorities’ decision.

ESMA publishes data for the systematic internaliser calculations for equity, equity-like instruments, bonds and other non-equity instruments

ESMA has published today, on a voluntary basis, the total number of trades and total volume over the period October 2020-March 2021 for the purpose of the systematic internaliser (SI) calculations under MiFID II for:

22,409 equity and equity-like instruments;
105,011 bonds; and
7,934 sub-classes of derivatives (including equity derivatives, interest rate derivatives, commodity derivatives, C10 derivatives, emission allowance and derivatives thereof and contracts for difference (CFDs)).

The SI test shall be performed by 15 May 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 April 2021 (see 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.

In consequence of Brexit, from 30 April 2021 the publication files for bonds and equity instruments, do not contain ISINs admitted to trading or traded only on UK trading venues. However, ISINs admitted to trading or traded both on EEA and UK trading venues are included. Last but not least, as communicated in the Public Statement on the Use of UK data in ESMA databases and performance of MiFID II calculations following the end of the UK transition period on 31 December 2020, the UK data reported before Brexit is used to perform the calculations.

ESMA publishes results of the annual transparency calculations for non-equity instruments

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, has today made available the results of the annual transparency calculations for non-equity instruments, which will apply from 1 June 2021. These calculations include the liquidity assessment and the determination of the pre- and post-trade size specific to the instruments and large in scale thresholds.

The results for the liquid sub-classes have been published in Excel format in the Annual transparency calculations for non-equity instruments register. The file does not contain the results for a number of asset-classes and sub-classes given the impossibility to correctly apply the segmentation criteria, as defined in Annex III of RTS 2 due to data quality problems or the absence of reporting standards for the applicable reference data. As a result, the transparency calculations for, among others, credit derivatives and options, futures and FRAs (forward rate agreements) on interest rates are not available.

ESMA will provide the annual transparency calculations for non-equity instruments at instrument (ISIN) basis, both liquid and illiquid ones, as of 30 April 2021. This information will be made available through the Financial Instruments Transparency System (FITRS) both by publishing XML files (here) and through the Register web interface (here).

As communicated in the Public Statement on the Use of UK data in ESMA databases and performance of MiFID II calculations following the end of the UK transition period on 31 December 2020, the UK data reported before Brexit is used to perform the calculations.

Recommendations for market participants:

Next steps

The transparency requirements based on the results of the annual transparency calculations for non-equity instruments shall apply from 1 June 2021 until 31 May 2022. From 1 June 2022, the results of the next annual transparency calculations for non-equity instruments, to be published by 30 April 2022, will become applicable.

ESMA makes new bond liquidity data available

ESMA published the latest quarterly liquidity assessment for bonds available for trading on EU trading venues. For this period, there are currently 651 liquid bonds subject to MiFID II transparency requirements.

ESMA’s liquidity assessment for bonds is based on a quarterly assessment of quantitative liquidity criteria, which includes the daily average trading activity (trades and notional amount) and the percentage of days traded per quarter. ESMA updates the bond market liquidity assessments quarterly. However, additional data and corrections submitted to ESMA may result in further updates within each quarter, published in ESMA’s Financial Instruments Transparency System (FITRS), which shall be applicable the day following publication.

From 30 April 2021, the calculations are performed using the parameter under stage 2 as per Commission Deletgated Regulation (EU) 2021/529 of 18 December 2020.

The full list of assessed bonds will be available through FITRS in the XML files with publication date from 30 April 2021 (see here) and through the Register web interface (see here).

In consequence of Brexit, from 30 April 2021 the publication files do not contain ISINs admitted to trading or traded only on UK trading venues. However, ISINs admitted to trading or traded both on EEA and UK trading venues are included. Last but not least, as communicated in the Public Statement on the Use of UK data in ESMA databases and performance of MiFID II calculations following the end of the UK transition period on 31 December 2020, the UK data reported before Brexit is already not used to perform the calculations since the observation period for the calculations is January-March 2021.

As usual, ESMA is also publishing two completeness indicators related to bond liquidity data.

The transparency requirements for bonds deemed liquid today will apply from 16 May 2021 to 15 August 2021.