Slovenia is one of eight EU countries behind with its MiFID II implementation schedule. By Vanda Močnik Kohek, Senior Relationship Manager, GSS Slovenia
MiFID II, due to become effective across the EU as of 3 January, will not be implemented in Slovenia in time. No official explanation of that has been provided by the Ministry of Finance or by the Securities Market Agency, the bodies most involved in the preparation of the implementing legislation.
Market participants assume that the reason for the delay is the number of open topics related to transposing the Directive into the domestic legislation. So far, only a first draft of the future Market in Financial Instruments Act-1 has been prepared by the Ministry of Finance. However, it is expected that the final version will be approved by the Parliament by the middle of 2018 at the latest.
As far as MiFIR is concerned, Ljubljana Stock Exchange worked continuously throughout 2017 to comply with the reporting obligations prescribed by MiFIR. All required changes to its rules and regulations were prepared and presented to the Securities Market Agency, which approved them just before the Christmas holidays.
The implementation of XETRA 17, which took place at the end of November, aimed at ensuring compliance with the new requirements. Among other things, a minimum iceberg order (hidden quantity) of EUR 10,000 and an audit trail have been introduced.