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The proposed updated market in financial instruments directive and regulation (MIFID/MIFIR) would lay down uniform trading rules for firms selling investment products, investment service providers and regulated markets. MEPs in the Economic Affairs Committee amended the proposed texts to ensure that firms designing investment products for sale to professional or retail clients ensure that they meet the needs of a defined category of clients. Firms would also be required to take reasonable steps to ensure that the product sold to the right kind of client. The rules proposed to improve consumer protection in financial services were presented in July 2012.

MEPs also proposed to uniform these rules. These uniform trading rules would apply to bonds, structured finance products and derivatives that can be traded on regulated markets, via a multilateral trading facility (MTF) or Organised Trading Facility (OTF). All market players and trading venue operators would be required to lay down clear rules and procedures for fair and orderly trading, objective criteria for executing orders efficiently and transparent criteria for determining which financial instruments may be traded via their systems.

The European Commission's proposal is also tightened up by MEPs on high-frequency algorithmic trading, in which computers trade millions of orders per second, with little or no human intervention. MEPs voted provisions to ensure that all orders should be valid for at least 500 milliseconds, i.e. must not be cancelled or modified during that time. Moreover, MEPs also inserted amendments to regulate trade in commodities and commodity derivatives, speculation in which is commonly blamed for food price volatility.