As discussions advance under the Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP), Euronext welcomes ESMA’s contribution to the debate on how to build deeper, more integrated and more competitive European capital markets.
Efficient capital markets are essential to support investment, economic growth and Europe’s competitiveness. A well-functioning market structure must foster liquidity, transparency and investor choice, while recognising that different execution models play complementary roles in meeting the diverse needs of market participants.
In recent years, trading on alternative execution venues like systematic internalisers (SIs) and Frequent Batch Auctions (FBAs) has increased significantly. While this trend partly reflects a competitive environment and investor demand, it is also important to consider the regulatory asymmetries that apply to bilateral venues compared with lit multilateral markets.
Euronext therefore calls for targeted measures to strengthen transparency, improve visibility of liquidity and ensure the consistent application of market rules across comparable trading activities, including the tick size regime and transparency obligations for systematic internalisers. These reforms would support fair competition, solid price formation and the long-term attractiveness of EU capital markets for issuers and investors while preserving robust competition and choice of execution venue available for all market participants.
Concretely, Euronext’s response to ESMA’s Call for Evidence includes detailed suggestions for policy solutions in this area. (please link to full document)
As policymakers consider future reforms in the context of the MISP, there is a unique opportunity to rebalance the framework and ensure a genuine level playing field across execution venues.
Euronext view - ESMA Call for Evidence on Market Structure