Bats Europe Rolls out Penultimate Mifid II Exchange Upgrades

With the European regulation due for implementation in less than six months, Bats Europe has introduced new capabilities including updated FIX tags for the review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive’s (Mifid II) RTS24 Order Record Keeping requirement, including an order capacity and liquidity provision designation, and algorithm identification for recording mandatory data. The exchange operator has also introduced support for Market Model Typology (MMTv3) on Bats market-data feeds and trade reporting requirements, aimed at improving the quality of post-trade data and transparency.

The first and second waves of upgrades focusing on the regulation’s implementation were made earlier in 2017, covering enhancements to market-data feeds to incorporate Mifid II transparency requirements, double-volume cap implementations, and order record-keeping capabilities. Two new market-data feeds—Bats Auction Feed and Last Sale Feed—were rolled out in 2016 to meet the data disaggregation and transparency requirements in Mifid II.

“We know that the preparation for legislation of this size requires careful, long-term planning and we’ve dedicated significant resources to successfully implement our plan,” said David Howson, chief operating officer of Bats Europe. “One of our top priorities is to be ready early to allow our customers plenty of time to prepare for Mifid II with confidence. This latest release has all of the major components required for Bats Europe participants to be ready to interact with the exchange under Mifid II.”

The final planned upgrade of the Bats Europe exchange is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2017, and will introduce additional trade-flagging capabilities and the ability for third-country—or non-European Union—firms to supply transaction reporting information directly to the exchange operator.

Kansas City-headquartered Bats Global Markets, the parent company of Bats Europe, was acquired by CBOE Holdings, owner of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, in March 2017 in a deal worth $3.2 billion.