The Directive, introduced as part of a move to underpin financial markets following the financial crisis, has been subject to significant criticism from the UK, France and Germany, along with banks and exchanges.
The latest deal requires that no proposal or policy from any regulator or from the European Securities and Markes Authority (ESMA) should directly or indirectly discriminate against any member states as a venue for the provision of investment services and activities in any currency.
It comes as tensions between the UK and Brussels mount over the latter’s role in the legislation of the financial sector. Earlier this month it was announced that the ECB was to try to strip London of its oversight of Libor, the interbank lending rate.
Britain is currently suing the ECB for imposing rules that could force LCH Clearnet, one of the world’s largest clearing houses, to relocate to the eurozone.
The union is under increasing pressure to pass the legislation as it is currently trailing the US which is in the final stages of passing its similar legislation under the Dodd-Frank Act.
The Financial Times reports that the key problem areas are likely to be related to access to clearing houses and the scope of a new type of trading venue known as an organised trading facility (OTF) which will regulate financial market trading.
