Europe's top markets regulator has stood by his proposals to bring greater transparency to the region's fixed income markets despite fears the rules could reduce already low levels of bond liquidity.

Steven Maijoor, chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority, said in a speech at L'Agefi in Paris on December 10 that the rules "mark a change from the current status but that is the objective of Mifid II: to bring more light, and more liquidity, to the bond market".