In common with other EU legislation, the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) requires the Commission to
review and report on its working to the European Parliament and Council and, to this end, the European
Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has consulted on its advice to the Commission. Besides the
mandatory aspects of the review, the Commission's
mandate to ESMA included important additional issues,
such as whether foreign exchange spot (spot FX) contracts should be covered by MAR. Taking into account
any feedback received, ESMA will submit a final report to the Commission this spring from which legislative
proposals to amend MAR may derive. Many of these topics will affect buy and sell side firms as well as
issuers of traded securities. While ESMA does express some views, much of the consultation
paper sets out
the issues and calls for opinions and evidence from market participants.
