Article 16 Temporary suspension of transparency obligations (Article 9(5)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014)

This Article does not apply in relation to a temporary suspension of obligations under Article 9(4A) or Article 11(2A) of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014.

For financial instruments for which there is a liquid market in accordance with the methodology set out in Article 13, the FCA may temporarily suspend the obligations set out in Articles 8 and 10 Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 where for a class of bonds, structured finance products, emission allowances or derivatives, the total volume as defined in Table 4 of Annex II calculated for the previous 30 calendar days represents less than 40 % of the average monthly volume calculated for the 12 full calendar months preceding those 30 calendar days.

For financial instruments for which there is not a liquid market in accordance with the methodology set out in Article 13, the FCA may temporarily suspend the obligations referred to in Articles 8 and 10 of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 when for a class of bonds, structured finance products, emission allowances or derivatives, the total volume as defined in Table 4 of Annex II calculated for the previous 30 calendar days represents less than 20 % of the average monthly volume calculated for the 12 full calendar months preceding those 30 calendar days.

The FCA shall take into account the transactions executed on all venues in the relevant area for the class of bonds, structured finance products, emission allowances or derivatives concerned when performing the calculations referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2. The calculations shall be performed at the level of the class of financial instruments to which the liquidity test set out in Article 13 is applied.

Before the FCA decides to suspend transparency obligations, they shall ensure that the significant decline in liquidity across all venues is not the result of seasonal effects of the relevant class of financial instruments on liquidity.