The last pieces of Europe’s trading rulebook overhaul look set to face further delays after last-minute translation hold-ups, a European Commission official has said. Late March is now the earliest date that the revised version of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive can be published.

The timeframe that the EC is working to will also make it "fiendishly difficult" to incorporate any late changes into the legislation, Tilman Lueder, head of the securities market unit at the EC, told a European Parliament committee on February 23.