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FIA European Principal Traders Association

FIA European Principal Traders Association (FIA EPTA) represents Europe’s leading Principal Trading Firms. Our 28 members are independent market makers and providers of liquidity and risk transfer for exchanges and end-investors across Europe. We work constructively with policymakers, regulators and other market stakeholders to ensure efficient, resilient, high-quality financial markets.

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Recent Updates

  • Response by the FIA EPTA to the FCA Discussion Paper on a new UK prudential regime for MiFID investment firms

    FIA EPTA appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on its Discussion Paper regarding the implementation of the new UK prudential regime for MiFID investment firms. Market making and liquidity provision (also referred to as principal trading or dealing on own account) is a distinct activity that is undertaken by non-systemic investment firms rather than banks, in a highly dispersed and varied ecosystem of independent Principal Trading Firms.

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  • FIA EPTA response to the European Commission consultation on the re-bundling of research and execution costs under the MiFID II quickfix

    FIA EPTA welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed MiFID II Quick-fix rules in relation to research on companies seeking alternative financing. Overall, FIA EPTA members believe that the unbundling rules laid out in MiFID II removed an important source for conflicts of interest and has reinforced the independence of research. We note that the market has fully implemented and adapted to research unbundling with clients now accustomed to receiving disaggregated cost information that differentiates between costs attributable to research from those related to execution.

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  • Consolidated response by FIA EPTA to the EBA consultations on IFR/IFD Level 2

    FIA European Principal Traders Association (FIA EPTA) appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback to the European Banking Authority (EBA) on the implementation of the new regulatory framework for investments firms (IFR/IFD). FIA EPTA has consistently welcomed the new prudential regime for investment firms contained in the Investment Firm Regulation and Directive (IFR/IFD), which is aimed at creating a tailored and proportionate prudential framework for firms such as those we represent.

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  • Response by FIA EPTA to the European Commission consultation on the renewed sustainable finance strategy

    FIA EPTA members welcome the opportunity to respond to the European Commission's consultation on the renewed sustainable finance strategy. FIA EPTA members will argue that there is a large variety of ESG ratings in the market, this makes it difficult, if not impossible, to come up with truly meaningful and harmonized ESG ratings between the different rating agencies. FIA EPTA Members argue for more standardisation of ESG indicators.

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EPTA Blog

  • CMU and the Investment Firm Review: strengthening European capital markets through proportionality

    Hands up if you want up-and-coming European companies to have sufficient access to the money they need to grow and to drive prosperity across the EU? It’s a no brainer – and one of the reasons why European politicians and regulators are keen to push forward the Capital Markets Union.

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  • Developing the CMU through an effective new Prudential Regime for Investment Firms

    One of the building blocks of the EU’s Capital Markets Union project is entering a crucial few months as the proposed new Prudential Regime for Investment Firms enters parliamentary scrutiny.

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  • Flash Crashes – time to stop knee-jerk blaming of HFT?

    On the 6th May 2010, Wall Street experienced what quickly became known as the ‘Flash Crash’. On the 15th January 2015, the Swiss Franc experienced a similar event against the Euro. And in October 2016, there was a flash crash in sterling, following Britain’s vote to leave the EU. The recent events in the sterling market seemed like a good idea to look back at the post event analysis of previous ‘flash crashes’ and review the findings.

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  • The growing body of HFT research: time to put old arguments to bed?

    Over the last few years the great and the good of the world’s regulatory authorities that govern financial markets have studied the impacts of the electronification of the markets, and the role played by high frequency trading. We welcome the recognition in these studies that markets and end users benefit from increased use of innovative technology, in line with the experience with innovation in other industries. We provide a summary of the recent reports.

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  • Five years’ of providing a voice to the EU principal trading industry

    This summer, FIA EPTA marked the 5th anniversary of its foundation. Although still a comparatively young organisation, this milestone has caused the people, like myself, who were there at the start to reflect upon how things have changed since we’ve been in business – as well as looking forward to what the next five years might bring.

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  • CRD IV bonus cap has perverse effect of increasing risk

    The EU's Capital Requirements Directive CRD IV has imposed a bonus cap on credit institutions and investment firms with the intention of discouraging the excessive risk-taking with client monies that contributed to the financial crisis. However, the inappropriate application of this bonus cap to principal trading firms now has the potential to result in the perverse effect of actually increasing risk, whilst hurting market quality.

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