ESMA provided Consob with its positive opinion pursuant to Article 13, Paragraph 4, of EU Regulation N. 596/2014 ("Market Abuse Regulation - MAR") with reference to the new text of Market Practice N. 1 relating to the market liquidity support activity (https://www.esma.europa.eu/press-news/esma-news/esma-issues-opinion-accepted-market-practice-liquidity-contracts-consob ).

More in details, the opinion establishes that the new text is compatible with the criteria set by Article 13, Paragraph 2, of the MAR and by the related provisions set by the Delegated Regulation N. 2016/908, and that the text itself provides several measures which are useful to contain the potential risk of market manipulation and the likely threats to trust in financial markets.

The new text of Market Practice n. 1 differs, at a certain extent, from the text already published by Consob on 8 April 2019, following the public consultation launched on 21 September 2018 and, therefore, sent by Consob itself to ESMA for the purposes of the aforementioned opinion as required by Article 13, Paragraph 4, of the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR).