5.II.1.6.8 Timing of equity pre-trade data publication

Under MiFID I equity pre-trade data relating to potential transactions in shares admitted to trading on an RM (a) advertised in the systems of an RM or MTF and (b) within normal trading hours needed to (c) be published as close to real-time as possible.1 An almost similar requirement was in place for the MiFID I equity post-trade transparency obligations.2 CESR expressed no timing issues for pre-trade data publication of RMs and MTFs during the MiFID I-review. By contrast, CESR articulated serious concerns about the timing of post-trade data publication.3 Similar emphasis on the timing of post-trade data was apparent in the MiFID II Proposal of the Commission,4 as well as in the positions taken on MiFID II by the European Parliament and the Council.5 No concerns were expressed about the timing of equity pre-trade data publication.6 The lack of emphasis on the timing of equity pre-trade publication is apparent in the final MiFID II text. MiFID II does not cover a timing requirement with respect to equity pre-trade data publication by RMs and MTFs (an explicit MiFID II requirement is in place for equity post-trade data publication).7 Instead, MiFID II more generally refers to the importance of ‘(…) timely information about the level of trading interest in financial instruments’.8