The EU is likely to make changes to rules within its Marketsin Financial Instruments Directive, or MiFID II, relating to so-called package transactions, BloombergNews reported April 11.

The proposed exemption would apply to package trades, potentiallyincluding interest rate swaps and futures traded simultaneously on differentplatforms, in which at least one contract is classed as illiquid or is hugeenough that it would not need to be executed through a public trading platform,the report added. The proposal was presented as part of anamendment allowing for a one-year delay in the implementation of MiFID II,although it was not originally part of the amendment and its inclusion hasprompted closed-door debates among the U.K., France, Germany and others, threesources told the newswire.

Parliamentarian Markus Ferber, who proposed the changes,said the European Council is "a little concerned about the scope, but wehave given the signal that we are willing to negotiate."