Dear students

I recently jokingly suggested, in response to the draft assignments you submitted, that some of you had such poor grammar and punctuation that your only future in finance might be as an internet fraudster. This profession is notable for slack drafting. You may recall that a spelling mistake recently led to the discovery of a cyberfraud on the Fed.

However, I have just read the ‘Discussion Paper on the Draft RTS and ITS under SFTR’ published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on 11 March. Clearly, grammar and drafting were not high priorities in the department that wrote this beauty. Missing verbs and articles, incorrect prepositions and many other solecisms litter this document, which is not helpful, given that it extends to 187 pages and 145 questions.  I should also mention the description of a yes or no answer as a Boolean value: correct but unnecessary showing off.

But, dear students, for you, this offers hope. ESMA can be contacted at  103 rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris, France.