Chicago 17/06/2016 - The London Metal Exchange (LME) and LME Clear (LMEC) have amended their timetables to deliver changes to trading, matching and clearing technology now that MiFID II has been deferred until January 2018.
The EU's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) - a new regulatory framework with which the exchange must comply - has been delayed for a year to give the EU financial services regulator and member states' national regulators more time to build the necessary systems and controls.
In response to the extended implementation, LMEselect version 9 will go live on December 5 this year, LMEsmart in January 2017, and LMEmercury in February 2017, the LME said on Friday.
While the LME had planned to roll out LMEselect, LMEsmart and LMEmercury together, the deferral of Mifid will allow it more time for testing by members and vendors, it added.
"Whilst there are benefits in keeping to the original timeline, given the scale of the changes required by MiFID II, it was considered prudent to revise the timeline," it said.
"In addition, the fact that for both LMEselect and LMEsmart the forthcoming releases will include a platform upgrade, and in the case of LMEsmart a change in platform provider, an opportunity for additional testing by members and vendors was seen as being extremely beneficial for the market as a whole," it added.
LMEmercury was launched September 2014 and allows members to match trades at a rate of more than 500 trades-per-second, while calculating margins and prices in real time.
Testing periods will take place September through November, but the exchange said final confirmation will be disclosed to members and vendors as soon as the dates are known.
(Editing by Tom Jennemann)