The European Securities and Markets Authority published its latest quarterly liquidity assessment for bonds traded on EU trading venues, identifying 1,195 bonds as liquid for the purposes of MiFID II transparency. The quarterly bond liquidity assessment will be discontinued after this publication as new transparency requirements for bonds start applying from 2 March 2026. The classification is based on quarterly quantitative liquidity criteria, including daily average trading activity (number of trades and notional amount) and the percentage of days traded per quarter. The full list of assessed bonds is available through ESMA’s Financial Instruments Transparency System (FITRS), with any subsequent data corrections potentially resulting in within-quarter updates that apply from the day following publication. ESMA also published two completeness indicators related to the bond liquidity data. To bridge to the application of revised RTS 2 provisions on non-equity transparency, the transparency requirements for bonds deemed liquid under this assessment will exceptionally apply from 17 November to 1 March 2026. No further quarterly liquidity assessments for bonds will be performed.
European Securities and Markets Authority 2025-10-31
European Securities and Markets Authority publishes bond liquidity assessment and discontinues the quarterly series ahead of 2 March 2026 transparency rules
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) released its final quarterly liquidity assessment for bonds under MiFID II, identifying 1,195 bonds as liquid. This assessment will be discontinued as new transparency requirements take effect from 2 March 2026. Interim transparency measures for these bonds will apply from 17 November to 1 March 2026.