Financial, futures, swaps and any other derivative contract related to goods, Consob
Consob informed ESMA, the European financial markets authority, of its willingness to comply with the guidelines issued on commodity derivatives falling under points 6 and 7 of section c of Annex I of the Mifid II directive (Notice of 25 July 2019).
The guidelines update those adopted by ESMA in October 2015 to adapt them to the new regulatory framework without changing the substance.
The Guidelines provide clarifications on the definition of certain financial instruments referred to in Annex I, Mifid II, fully incorporated in the Consolidated Law on Finance – Tuf and clarify in particular the scope and methods of application of derivative contracts in the categories:
C6, which mentions option contracts, futures, swaps and any other derivative contract related to goods that can be liquidated on physical delivery provided it is traded on a regulated market and / or a multilateral trading system;
C7, which mentions option contracts, futures, swaps, forwards and other contracts on commodity-related derivatives that cannot be executed in different ways than those mentioned in point C6 and have no commercial purposes, having the characteristics of other financial instruments derivatives.
Esma still considers the indications contained in the Guidelines to be valid and has updated the content to take account of the changes resulting from the entry into force of the Mifid II.
In particular, the mention of the trading venues (regulated market and multilateral trading system) is integrated with the new type of trading venue introduced by Mifid II (the so-called OTF – organized trading systems).
The exclusion from the C6 category is also mentioned, with reference to wholesale energy products with physical delivery and negotiated on an OTF, in accordance with the new C6 text introduced by Mifid II.
The guidelines have also been integrated with a mere reference to the definitions set out in the EU Delegated Regulation 2017/565, published alongside the Mifid II.
In the remaining part, the text of the Guidelines follows the previous version, on which Consob had already notified ESMA of its intention to comply.
29 July 2019
Source Consob
