The financial industry has expressed relief at the European Commission's suggestion this week it will a delay implementing the wholesale reform of Europe’s trading rulebook, but executives have warned the move is far from certain and urge that regulatory work should proceed as scheduled.

Speaking during a scrutiny session at the European Parliament in Brussels on November 10, Martin Merlin, a director in the Commission's financial services division, said that the preliminary view of the Commission was that the whole package's implementation deadline should be delayed by a year.