On January 14, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached political agreement in trialogue on the MiFID II legislative proposals (the proposed MiFID II Directive and the proposed Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR)).

Key elements of the agreement are:

o   The market structure framework;
o   Equity market transparency;
o   Strengthening supervisory powers;
o   Controls for algorithmic trading activities; and
o   Access to EU markets for firms from third countries.

The MiFID II legislative proposals will replace and recast the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (2004/39/EC) (MiFID).

The Parliament press release sets out the agreements that were reached. Press Release.