Last week the FSA, the UK regulator, announced the release of "Implementing MiFID's Best Execution Requirements", a discussion paper with the period for responses closing on the 17th August. This paper is the first of a series of formal and informal papers planned over the next six months.
In the opening speech to the FSA's MiFID Conference, Hector Sants, Managing Director, Wholesale and Institutional markets and a Board member at the FSA, announced the FSA's plans for consultation a release of papers on MiFID. He also confirmed the consistent message from the EC – that any significant changes to the final MiFID Level 2 requirements, due to be agreed by the European Parliament by mid-July, would be few. He said that "We have now reached the stage where the talking is almost stopped and we need to proceed with implementation". Sants went on to say that the impact of MiFID, and therefore benefits, were likely to be markedly less in the UK than many other EU countries, as many MiFID features were already existing practice. However passporting, the end of concentration rules and the introduction of a pan-European regime for multi-lateral trading facilities should bring benefits and opportunities to UK securities firms.
In a separate initiative, the respected Brussels-based think-tank, the Centre for European Policy Studies is expected to release a study this week which raises some concerns about the implementation of MiFID, in particular whether the benefits will outweigh the costs of implementation. However the study is also expected to confirm that the benefits for banks that operate across many EU member states will be considerable and that bigger banks will now be competing with existing European exchanges.
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