THETRADETECH DAILY THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF TRADETECH 2026
Management Association( EFAMA) in March 2026 called on policymakers to focus on enhancing competition and innovation to scale up EU equity markets, rather than shifting trading back to incumbent exchanges.
Within the paper, the two trade associations emphasised that mechanisms such as bilateral trading should not be curbed, to deliver efficient execution and investor choice and simultaneously bolster equity markets across Europe.
Speaking at the time, Adam Farkas, chief executive at AFME, said:“ Proposals from
Europe’ s leading stock exchanges have yet to articulate how EU equity markets can scale and compete globally, appearing instead primarily focused on restricting competition from alternative trading models.
“ Bilateral trading mechanisms play an important role in delivering efficient execution and meaningful choice for investors and attempts to curtail them risk undermining the competition that has helped lower costs and improve outcomes under the Mifid framework.”
Moreover, proposals such as accelerating the delivery of a robust consolidated tape – with the EU tape for shares and ETFs currently set to go live in July 2026- enforcing Reasonable Commercial Basis rules to curb market data costs, and advancing post-trade integration were also highlighted in the paper, with the associations indicating that these reforms should be front of mind for policymakers.
These calls for action also align with ongoing discussions on the EU’ s Market Integration and Supervision Package( MISP), published in December 2025 as part of the wider Savings and Investments Union initiative. www. thetradenews. com 17