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The Council of the European Union has adopted significant changes to the EU’s trading rules, aiming to provide investors with better access to market data necessary for investing in financial instruments. The move is expected to enhance the global competitiveness of the EU’s capital markets and ensure a level playing field.
The changes concern the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), which together regulate investment services and financial markets activities in the EU. “The aim of the new rules is to empower investors, in particular by making consolidated market data easily available at EU level,” the Council stated.
Currently, trading data is scattered across multiple platforms, such as stock exchanges and investment banks, making it challenging for investors to access accurate and up-to-date information. The newly adopted rules establish EU-level ‘consolidated tapes’, or centralised data feeds for different kinds of assets. These tapes will bring together market data provided by platforms on which financial instruments are traded in the EU, aiming to publish the information as close to real time as possible.
“As a result, investors will have access to up-to-date transaction information for the whole of the EU. This will make it easier for both professional and retail investors to access key information such as the price of instruments and the volume and time of transactions,” the Council explained.
The new rules also impose a general ban on ‘payment for order flow’ (PFOF), a practice where brokers receive payments for forwarding client orders to certain trading platforms. Member states where PFOF already existed may allow investment firms under its jurisdiction to be exempt from the ban, provided that PFOF is only provided to clients in that member state. However, this practice must be phased out by 30 June 2026.
The review also introduces new rules on commodity derivatives, further expanding the scope of the regulations.
This is the final step of the adoption procedure. The texts will now be published in the EU’s Official Journal and enter into force 20 days later. The regulation will apply immediately in all EU countries, whereas the member states will have 18 months to bring into force the laws, regulations, and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the directive.
