Feb 10 The European Union's executive body has proposed a one-year delay to January 2018 for the bloc's sweeping reform of securities markets rules, saying banks and regulators needed more time to prepare.
The so-called MiFID II rules play catch up with advances in trading technologies, increase transparency in bond and commodity markets, and apply lessons from the financial crisis.
The European Commission said on Wednesday the anticipated delay was due to "exceptional technical implementation challenges" faced by regulators and market participants.
"The extension of the deadline is strictly limited to what is necessary to allow the technical implementation work to be finalised," the executive body said in a statement.
Some EU states and members of the European Parliament are hoping the delay will make it possible to introduce changes of substance to contentious parts of the MiFID reform. (Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by Carolyn Cohn)