ESMA final report on technical advice for MAR and MiFID II SME Growth Markets

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its final report providing technical advice to the European Commission (EC) on changes made by the Listing Act to the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) in relation to small and medium enterprise (SME) growth markets. The Listing Act seeks to promote better access to public capital markets for EU companies, in particular SMEs, by simplifying requirements and reducing administrative burden. ESMA consulted on the advice in December 2024 and this final report includes feedback received in response to the consultation. Much of the MAR technical advice concerns the rules for disclosing inside information during a protracted process. It also covers the approach for identifying trading venues with a significant cross-border dimension under the new cross market order book mechanism (article 25a MAR). The MiFID technical advice concerns the category of multilateral trading facilities (MTF) labelled SME growth markets and the requirements that such an MTF (or MTF segment) must comply with under article 33 MiFID II. In giving its technical advice, ESMA suggests amendments to Commission Delegated Regulation 2017/565 (known as the MiFID Org Reg) or otherwise confirms its view where no amendments would be needed. The EC will adopt the delegated acts for which the technical advice was requested by July 2026.

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