ESMA consults on post-trade transparency

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) started a consultation focusing on the new Level 3 guidance included in its future manual on post-trade transparency.
This included matters pertaining to post-trade transparency to enhance the accuracy and usability of the released information, as well as the reporting to ESMA’s Financial Instruments Reference Data System (FITRS) for the accomplishment of the transparency calculations.
The manual will provide a general overview of the post-trade transparency regime for equity, equity-like and non-equity instruments and will include in one single document:
+ legal references of Level 1 (MiFIR / MiFID II);
+ legal references of Level 2 (RTS 1 and RTS 2);
+ legal references of Level 3 (Opinions/Guidelines);
+ guidance included in previously published Q&As; and
+ new Level 3 guidance.
The MiFIR pre- and post-trade transparency requirements for equity instruments (shares, depositary receipts, ETFs, and certificates) and non-equity instruments (bonds, structured finance products (SFPs), emission allowances, and derivatives) are further detailed in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/587 (RTS 1) and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/583 (RTS 2).
This consultation paper (CP) presents ESMA’s proposals on a Level 3 guidance, in the form of a Manual, on the post-trade transparency fields, following the application of MiFID II and MiFIR for nearly five years and ESMA’s work on reviewing the MiFID II/MiFIR provisions and the related Level 2 provisions, in particular on transparency and on the operation of the consolidated tape provider (CTP) for equity instruments.
The co-legislators have not yet given their approval to the reviewed RTS 1 and 2. However, ESMA is issuing this CP based on the contents of the reviewed RTS 1 and 2, which were accepted by the European Commission on January 17, 2023, in light of the need to improve the data quality of the post-trade transparency reports prior to the establishment of a CTP. When creating the final Manual, ESMA will make any modifications required as a result of how the legislative process turns out.
The context of this Level 3 worktream is provided in Section 2, and the Q&As that have already been published by ESMA and will be incorporated into the Manual are defined in Section 3.
The suggested adjustments to the CFI code – MiFIR identifier mapping, which forms the foundation for the identification of the various types of instruments for the sake of transparency, are examined in Section 4.
The reporting areas of the post-trade transparency reports for equity instruments and non-equity instruments are the main topics of Sections 5 and 6, respectively. A separate subsection is devoted to the new portfolio flag for non-equity instruments, and Section 7 ends with a focus on the flags used to identify the various transactions.
Responses may be submitted through this ESMA page.