In the body of a letter from ESMA to the European Commission, the final paragraph makes clear that in the event that the request for a one year delay is indeed rejected, a further Q&A will be published that will be "without consultation" and "unlikely to produce the desirable data quality" to steer the market towards some sort of Feb 12th start date. The letter points out that the delay is intended primarily for data quality reasons, and that without better regulations and guidance, next year is going to be unpredictable in what data is made available to regulators.

Get your business analysts ready for a last ditch Q&A before Christmas maybe?

For the full letter experience, click on over to the ESMA site and download the Letter to Jonathan Faull.