What transparency applies to bonds, derivatives and other non-equity instruments?

Non-equity instruments are bonds, structured finance products (SFPs), emission allowances and derivatives. Regulation (EU) 2024/791 narrowed their pre-trade regime sharply from 28 March 2024. For bonds, SFPs and emission allowances, a venue must publish current bid and offer prices and the depth of interest only if it runs a central limit order book or a periodic auction system. It then publishes that information continuously during normal trading hours, calibrated to the type of system. For derivatives, on the same two types of system, Article 8a limits the duty to exchange-traded derivatives on regulated markets and, on MTFs and OTFs, to centrally cleared OTC derivatives in euro, yen, US dollars or sterling of two kinds: contracts subject to the EMIR clearing obligation, and credit default swaps referencing global systemically important banks. Package orders have their own rules in Article 8b.

The exam material describes the earlier, wider regime. It says venues publish prices, depth and actionable indications of interest for all non-equity instruments they trade, calibrated for voice trading systems as well. It says derivatives trades of non-financial counterparties that objectively reduce their commercial or treasury risks are exempt, and that under a waiver a venue must still publish at least bid and offer prices near the price of the interest it advertises. Since 28 March 2024 only the core duty to show prices and depth survives, and only on order books and periodic auctions. Request-for-quote and voice systems are outside pre-trade transparency, the hedging exemption for non-financial counterparties has been deleted, and the minimum-price duty, which only ever applied under the size-specific waiver, went with that waiver.

Article 9(1) lets CySEC waive pre-trade transparency for large-in-scale orders and orders parked in an order management facility; for OTC derivatives that are not subject to the trading obligation and have no liquid market, and other instruments without a liquid market; for exchange for physical orders; and for package orders with an illiquid or large-in-scale component, unless the package as a whole has a liquid market. The procedure mirrors the equity one: four months' notice to ESMA and the other authorities, an ESMA opinion within two months, referral to ESMA if an authority disagrees, and a yearly ESMA report. Since 28 March 2024 ESMA may also ask CySEC to withdraw a waiver. The exam material also lists a waiver for actionable indications of interest in voice and request-for-quote systems above a size specific to the instrument, set with regard to whether participants are retail or wholesale. That waiver was deleted on 28 March 2024.

Separately, CySEC may temporarily suspend the transparency obligations for a class of instruments whose liquidity falls below a threshold set on objective criteria specific to that market. Before suspending or renewing, it notifies ESMA with an explanation, and ESMA gives an opinion. The suspension is published on CySEC's website and notified to ESMA, which also publishes it. It lasts initially for up to three months from publication, can be renewed for up to three months at a time while the grounds persist, and lapses automatically if not renewed. The exam material in one place calls this a suspension of trading. It is not: trading continues, and only the publication obligations are suspended.

Under Article 10, venues publish the price, volume and time of each transaction in bonds, SFPs, emission allowances, exchange-traded derivatives and the OTC derivatives covered by Article 8a, as close to real time as technically possible, flagging the components of package orders. The exam material describes the earlier deferral system, in which CySEC could authorise a venue to defer publication. The Regulation allowed this on three separate grounds: the trade was large in scale; the instrument had no liquid market; or the trade was above a size specific to the instrument that would leave liquidity providers exposed to undue risk, taking account of whether participants were retail or wholesale. The exam material runs the last two grounds together. The venue needed CySEC's prior approval, and ESMA reported every year. That system still applies to derivatives until the standards under Article 11a apply. They are expected to apply from 1 March 2027.

Since 2 March 2026, when the revised RTS 2 began to apply, bonds, SFPs and emission allowances have had a harmonised regime. Venues and investment firms defer publication under fixed rules, without CySEC's authorisation. Bonds fall into five categories, each with a maximum deferral. Category 1 trades may be deferred for up to 15 minutes; category 2 until the end of the trading day; category 3 until the end of the next trading day (T+1) for the price and one week for the volume; category 4 until the end of T+2 for the price and two weeks for the volume; and category 5 up to four weeks for both. For sovereign debt issued by Cyprus, CySEC may also allow volumes to be omitted or trades aggregated for up to six months. Each Member State's authority decides this for its own sovereign debt; for sovereign debt not issued by a Member State, ESMA decides. ESMA now reports on deferrals every two years.