FIA-EPTA rejects claims about HFT

Paris, 24 April 2012

FIA European Principal Traders Association (FIA-EPTA) strongly refutes the claims made about the impact of high-frequency trading in a report published by a lobby group today as European policymakers review the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).

"We believe that the views on liquidity held by Finance Watch are not correct and are not supported by any empirical evidence,” said Remco Lenterman, chairman of FIA-EPTA.

"High-frequency trading is clearly playing an unequivocal role in lowering transaction costs, which is of huge benefit to end users," Lenterman said.

He noted the solid body of academic research supporting the positive function of high-frequency trading (http://www.futuresindustry.org/epta/academic-research.asp).

FIA-EPTA is committed to cooperating constructively with European policymakers and regulators to work towards a regulatory framework that ensures the safe and sound functioning of markets and promotes transparency. As part of its ongoing responsible engagement, FIA-EPTA will shortly make available a position paper on MiFID.

In the next step of the regulatory process, the European Parliament's ECON committee is due on Thursday to debate the MiFID review.

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