EU shuts door on foreign electronic access providers

US FCMs could be barred from providing direct electronic access as member states bow to Esma

For more than a year now, regulators from across the European Union have regularly met in Paris to answer – or attempt to answer – a bottomless list of questions submitted by market participants trying to understand the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. But one of those answers may have just slammed the door on third-country firms, which currently provide electronic access to EU trading venues.

That would potentially lock out significant numbers of US futures commission merchan