Recital 1

(1)A high degree of transparency is essential to ensure that investors are adequately informed as to the true level of actual and potential transactions in shares, depositary receipts, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), certificates and other similar financial instruments irrespective of whether those transactions take place on regulated markets, multilateral trading facilities (MTFs), and by systematic internalisers, or outside those facilities. This high degree of transparency should also ensure that the price discovery process in respect of particular financial instruments traded on different trading venues is not impaired by the fragmentation of liquidity, and investors are not thereby penalised.