Energy firms given second escape path from Mifid II

Revival of capital test "a workable solution" for asset-heavy companies

Big energy companies that execute a lot of commodity derivatives have been given a new way to escape Europe's fast-approaching trading and transparency regime – a compromise the industry is welcoming cautiously after a year of intense lobbying and political wrangling.

In final rules published on December 1, the European Commission (EC) offered companies a second way to show trading is ancillary to their core business, which would exempt them from the revised Markets in Financial Instruments