MiFID II Own account Dealing Exemption has been amended to allow non-financial corporate users to be members or have direct access to trading venues.

As you may be aware, under the provisions of the 2014 revised Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), all trading venues providing multilateral trading capabilities in MiFID financial instruments including Foreign Exchange Derivatives, will need to be authorised as an Exchange, Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) or Organised Trading Facility (OTF). These authorisations will need to be in place by the time MiFID II takes effect, which is now scheduled for 3rd January 2018.

Under Article 2 1. (d) (ii), of the revised MiFID it had appeared, as a consequence of the desire to regulate algorithmic high frequency traders, that the Own Account Dealing Exemption had inadvertently been withdrawn. This would have created the curious consequence of forcing platforms to become regulated whilst simultaneously denying non-financial corporate entities access to those same platforms, unless those entities sought authorisation as a regulated entity themselves or sought access to those platforms via an intermediary. Clearly this would have caused major disruption to the fair and efficient operation of European markets.

However, following efforts by 360T, its parent company Deutsche Börse and other interested parties, to right this anomaly – 360T is delighted to inform you that it has been agreed to amend the MiFID II Directive and that that non-financial corporate counterparties who are participants / members or who have direct electronic access to our trading venue will continue to be subject to the exemption provided they do not engage in high frequency trading strategies.

Although you will now be able to freely benefit from a range of enhancements that MiFID requires trading venues to provide to end users, you will no doubt appreciate that 360T has championed and been a class leader at providing you with many benefits, such as increased transparency, since it started operations back in 2000. More importantly, you will continue to have unfettered access to one of the world’s greatest sources of FX liquidity.

As ever, 360T can assure you – our clients – that it will be doing all that is optimal to meet your ongoing trading needs, both now and in the future. We thank you for your ongoing loyalty.