LONDON (Reuters) – European Union rules to punish failures to settle stock and bond trades could be delayed until February 2022 because of the pandemic, the bloc’s securities watchdog said on Tuesday.
The so-called settlement discipline regime was due to come into effect in February next year.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said it was working on a proposal to possibly delay the entry into force of the settlement discipline regime until February 1, 2022.
“This is due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the implementation of regulatory projects and IT deliveries by Central Securities Depositories and came as a request from the European Commission,” ESMA said in a statement.
(Reporting by Huw Jones, Editing by Iain Withers)
