Following the decision by the European Parliament and the Council to opt in favour of mandatory position limits whose calibration shall be determined by ESMA through regulatory technical standards, FIA Europe (formerly FOA) and ISDA called for a standard approach to hedging exemption definitions as applied under MiFID Article 59. In a statement, the associations said they believe that the hedging exemption to position limits should cover all market participants entering into transactions whose purpose is to hedge commercial risks, without discriminating between financial and non-financial entities. It is the purpose of the transaction that must determine the exemption and not the class of the market participant.
