Mifid transparency regime snares illiquid bonds

Banks and lobbyists call on EC to remove emerging market bonds from real-time transparency

Dealers complain that bonds for which there is no liquid trading can still be caught by Mifid II transparency rules

Bankers are calling for the European Commission to address faulty market transparency rules that are forcing inappropriate public reporting of trades in illiquid bond instruments. The rules are obliging banks to take steps that may include trading the affected bonds outside the European Union to avoid moving the market against themselves by disclosing positions that are hard to hedge or exit.

“Last year, a Nigerian long-dated government bond was liquid,” says a regulatory expert at a global