MiFIR: Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012

At a glance

Full text

Official full text: Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 (PDF, en)² · 1,080 KB · file checked 2026-09-24 · consolidated version of 2025-11-23

Official page: eur-lex.europa.eu¹

Summary

Regulation (EU) No 600/2014, MiFIR, sets uniform EU rules for market transparency, trading conduct and transaction reporting. It reaches investment firms, credit institutions that provide investment services, market operators, central counterparties (CCPs) and trading venues, meaning regulated markets, MTFs and OTFs. MiFIR itself sets up the authorisation regime for Data Reporting Services Providers (DRSPs): Approved Publication Arrangements (APAs), Consolidated Tape Providers (CTPs) and Approved Reporting Mechanisms (ARMs), supervised by ESMA or the national competent authority. It also covers registration of third-country firms that serve eligible counterparties and professional clients across borders without a branch. Firms owe pre-trade and post-trade transparency across equity and non-equity instruments, a duty to trade shares on regulated venues or systematic internalisers, the derivatives trading obligation, and non-discriminatory clearing access between CCPs, trading venues and benchmarks. Transaction reports go to regulators under Article 26. Payment for order flow is banned outright across the EU, and ESMA, EBA and national authorities keep product intervention powers in reserve.

Summary written by the Atlas from the official text; the law itself prevails.

Main articles

• Art. 1: Sets the uniform rulebook: market transparency, transaction reporting, the derivatives trading obligation, benchmark access, product intervention, third-country registration and DRSP authorisation.
• Art. 3: A venue running an equity trading system must publish, continuously and in real time, its pre-trade bid and offer prices and the depth of interest behind them.
• Art. 8: The same pre-trade transparency extends to bonds, structured finance products and emission allowances, though calibrated waivers apply above certain order sizes.
• Art. 14: A systematic internaliser in equity instruments must publish firm quotes up to the standard market size, and deal at the price it quoted.
• Art. 20: Off-venue equity trades still need publishing: volume, price and timestamp, through an authorised APA.
• Art. 23: Shares admitted to a regulated market must be traded there, or on an MTF, a systematic internaliser, or an equivalent third-country venue. Nowhere else.
• Art. 26: Transaction reports must be complete, accurate, and in the regulator's hands by the close of the next working day at the latest.
• Art. 27b: Running an APA, a CTP or an ARM needs prior authorisation, from ESMA or from the national competent authority.
• Art. 27da: ESMA selects a single Consolidated Tape Provider for each asset class, bonds, shares and ETFs, OTC derivatives, with each mandate running five years.
• Art. 28: Financial counterparties, and the non-financial ones the rule catches, must trade sufficiently liquid, clearing-eligible derivatives only on regulated markets, MTFs, OTFs or an equivalent third-country venue.
• Art. 35: CCPs and trading venues must give each other open, non-discriminatory clearing access. No skewed margin calculations, clearing fees or collateral terms.
• Art. 38h: ESMA can fine a data reporting provider up to EUR 200,000, plus periodic penalty payments, for an intentional or negligent breach.
• Art. 38n: ESMA charges DRSPs, meaning APAs, CTPs and ARMs, proportionate authorisation and annual supervisory fees, set to cover its own regulatory costs in full.
• Art. 39a: No payment for order flow. A firm cannot take money from a third party for routing a client's order to a particular venue.
• Art. 40: ESMA can step in temporarily to ban or restrict the marketing, distribution or sale of an instrument or practice that threatens investor protection or market integrity.
• Art. 46: A third-country firm can serve EU eligible counterparties and professional clients across borders without a branch, once it registers with ESMA on the back of a Commission equivalence decision.

Licences it governs

• IF · Cyprus

  Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) authorisation

  CySEC

• IF · Spain

  AV) investment firm licence

  CNMV

• IF · Spain

  Empresa de Asesoramiento Financiero (EAF) licence

  CNMV

• IF · France

  Financial investment adviser status

  AMF

• IF · Luxembourg

  Investment firm authorisation

  CSSF

• IF · Netherlands

  Investment firm licence

  Investment firm licence (Vergunning beleggingsonderneming) under Wft Article 2:96 and MiFID II

  AFM

Regulators that apply it

• Netherlands

  Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM)

  The Autoriteit Financiële Markten (AFM) is the Netherlands' autonomous conduct-of-business supervisory authority (zelfstandig bestuursorgaan

• France

  Financial Markets Authority (AMF)

  The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) is France's independent financial markets authority. It protects savings invested in financial pro

• Spain

  National Securities Market Commission (CNMV)

  The National Securities Market Commission is the Spanish agency responsible for supervising and inspecting secondary securities markets, inv

• Luxembourg

  Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF)

  The CSSF is Luxembourg's unified public supervisory authority for the financial centre. It carries out prudential supervision and market con

• Cyprus

  Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC)

  The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission is the independent public supervisory authority responsible for the regulation and supervision

• European Union

  European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)

  ESMA operates as an independent European Union supervisory authority that protects the public interest by contributing to the stability and

Upcoming changes

• 2028-03-29: ESMA must submit a comprehensive report to the European Commission assessing the appropriateness of the single volume cap under Article 5(1) and the necessity to remove or extend it to other trading systems deriving prices from reference prices.³