| The European Banking Federation (FBE) who represents the interests of 4,500 banks across Europe has united with other members of the financial services industry in criticising proposals for the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
In their response to the first revision of the Internal Market Services' Working Document, the FBE have welcomed some of the proposed changes but have expressed concern that there needs to be "several additional important changes" before the draft measures are finalised.
Concerns raised by the Federation relate to a general lack of clarity and precision in the proposals but also go deeper, highlighting the fact that some parts of the directive such as post-trade transparency deferral schemes have not been subjected to a cost-benefit analysis thereby rendering them "too complex, cumbersome and restrictive".
This failure was revealed recently by Hector Sants at the FSA's Annual Public Meeting when he admitted that the cost and benefits of MiFID had not been evaluated on any level. The FBE's comments join the view of FSA Chairman Callum McCarthy who at the same meeting criticised the drafting of MiFID proposals as being "deeply unsatisfactory".
These latest criticisms are likely to increase pressure on Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy to further delay the introduction of MiFID and provide more time to resolve the wide-ranging concerns being expressed throughout the financial sector.
Full details of the FBE's response can be found on their website.
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