The Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) went live on 3rd January 2018 and aims to strengthen investor protection and improve the functioning of financial markets making them more efficient, resilient and transparent.

MiFID II was created and went live on 3rd January 2018 to ensure the continued applicability of MIFID to evolving markets, with particular reference to high frequency trading, dark pools, OTC trading and transaction reporting. 2018 also saw the introduction of MiFIR – a regulation which must be complied with by all jurisdictions of the EU, (MIFID = a directive which can be interpreted and implemented by each NCA dependant on the structure of their financial services industry).

The regulation was broken down into 28 technical standards by ESMA, each addressing in more detail the regulatory requirements for investment firms of a specific area of the regulation as follows;