Eurofi Forum, Paris, 23-25 February 2022

AMAFI attended the Eurofi Forum in Paris on 23-25 February. It was represented by Chairman Stéphane Giordano, Director of European and International Affairs Arnaud Eard, and several members of the European Action Committee. On the sidelines of the public sessions, AMAFI representatives met with a number of key figures, including Alexandra Jour-Schroeder, DG FISMA Deputy Director General; Harald Waiglein, Director General at the Austrian Finance Ministry; Eva Wimmer, Head of Financial Markets at the German Finance Ministry; Michael McGrath, Assistant Secretary General at the Irish Finance Ministry; and financial services advisors for Bulgaria, Denmark and Finland.

The talks covered three priority issues for AMAFI: the competitiveness of EU firms and attractiveness of European markets (AMAFI / 22-09), the MiFIR review (AMAFI / 22-11) and the Listing Act (AMAFI / 22-08).

Given the financing challenges facing the European Union, which range from economic recovery and energy transition to the digitised economy and population ageing, and in view of the reforms introduced by the United Kingdom as part of its Wholesale Markets Review, AMAFI stressed the need to put business competitiveness and the attractiveness of European markets at the heart of reforms aimed at completing the Capital Markets Union initiative. The current MiFIR review has a major role to play in this regard, notably in reforming the transparency regimes for equity and bond markets and establishing a consolidated tape.

Regarding the latter point, the aim is to gradually introduce a dual system: a preand post-trade tape for equities and a post-trade tape for bonds. Meanwhile, to make sure that EU markets and financial firms stay attractive, competitive and positioned to provide the requisite financing for the European economy on a sufficiently independent basis, possible UK regulatory amendments must not be ignored, given their potential to attract EU issuers and investors.