Update on the Double Volume Cap

We have today published a revised version of our Statement of Policy about the use of a temporary power we have under UK Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR).

Dark trading in equities takes place when the terms on which participants are willing to trade in equity instruments are not made publicly available before the trade is executed.

The Double Volume Cap (DVC) limits the level of dark trading to a certain proportion of total trading in an equity.  

The temporary power under UK MiFIR allows us to choose to apply the DVC if we consider it necessary to advance our integrity objective, for example if dark trading is harming the ability of market participants to make well-informed decisions.  

In December, we announced that we would not automatically apply the DVC to UK equities and we are now extending this to all equities.

In the revised Statement of Policy we set out that we are willing to use our temporary powers flexibly and amend our approach to the DVC if another jurisdiction makes an equivalence decision in respect of the UK.