[author: Bethan Saunders]

The European Parliament has agreed not to block requests from policy makers and regulators to postpone implementation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. This delay pushes back the intended date of the new legislation to January 2018.

The legislation is still being drafted and market participants have pushed for a longer implementation period to allow for internal updating and training. The press release published on November 27, 2015 states that the “Commission and ESMA need to come up with a clear roadmap on the implementation work and especially for setting up the IT-systems”.