Dark pool trading shows no sign of decline since MiFID II entry into force, ESMA data shows

By Maria Nikolova November 18, 2020, FX News Group The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) today published its first statistical report on European Union (EU) securities markets. The Report aims to offer a comprehensive overview of European equity and bond...

EU Regulators Spill More Ink Tackling Market Data Costs

By Joanna Wright November 18, 2020, WatersTechnology In October 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held a roundtable discussion on market data costs and market access. Amid the other commissioners in their dark suit jackets, commissioner Hester Peirce...

Mifid II: has European regulation ever truly converged?

November 19, 2020, Practice Insight from IFLR While much of the financial markets is focussed on whether Brexit will lead to regulatory divergence between the UK and the EU, some have questioned how aligned European states have ever really...

UK watchdog sees no big divergence from EU securities market rules

By Huw Jones November 17, 2020, Reuters Britain will only diverge from European Union securities rules in “exceptional” circumstances given that the UK played a key role in shaping them and still supports their objectives, a senior Financial Conduct...

EU Withholding Finance Access Is ‘Really Regrettable’, U.K. Says

By Silla Brush November 12, 2020, Bloomberg A senior U.K. Treasury official urged the European Union to match its attempts to preserve cross-border finance, calling it “really regrettable” that the bloc hasn’t budged with weeks until the post-Brexit transition...

Mifid II’s best execution faces uncertain future

By Hugo Bromley November 11, 2020, Practice Insight from IFLR The current review of Mifid II is an opportunity for best execution to be redrafted to suit both industry and regulators, according to sources speaking to Practice Insight.The Mifid...

How the MiFID II review and Covid-19 are reshaping the hedge fund operational landscape

By Hugh Leask November 11, 2020, HedgeWeek With certain aspects of the EU’s ongoing MiFID II review affected by the coronavirus pandemic, Hedgeweek explores how a fresh overhaul of the framework may further impact hedge fund operations, and why...

Central Bank of Ireland highlights MiFID II failings

November 11, 2020, Funds Europe Ireland’s financial regulator has criticised an undisclosed number of financial firms for failing to be consumer focused enough when it comes to dealing securities. The Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) said some firms have...

ESMA prepares for no-deal Brexit with plans to delay MiFID II calculations

By Annabel Smith November 10, 2020, The Trade Vital datasets needed to comply with MiFID II will not be published for two months from the end of this year in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the EU markets...

Industry renews push for consolidated tape following study

By Tom Eckett November 9, 2020, ETF Stream The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), the European Forum of Securities Associations (EFSA) and other industry participants have renewed their push for the creation of a consolidated tape following...

Brexit: FCA Moves Decisively on Trading Dilemma

By Adrian Whelan, Brown Brothers Harriman Originally published at the On the Regs blog With only 52 days left until the conclusion of the Brexit transition period at 11.00 p.m. (BST) on December 31, time is rapidly running out...

After Regulators Cracked Down, Wall Street Banks Cleaned Up Their Research. But Not Everyone Won.

By Julie Segal November 3, 2020, Institutional Investor Twenty years after Wall Street banks settled with regulators over conflicts of interest in the stock research they produced for clients, a new study of analysts’ top picks finds that the...

Europe thinks Mifid II is in crisis. The truth is, no one knows

By Hugo Bromley November 3, 2020, Practice Insight from IFLR Mifid II is two years old. Its impact is still poorly understood. It is also huge, a sprawling piece of regulation covering, as its rarely used full name states,...

Botched copy: Esma delivers cut and paste pastiche of Trace

By Samuel Wilkes November 3, 2020, Risk Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say. But what if the imitation falls short of the original? That is the outcome dealers fear in Europe, where plans to amend...

EU and UK diverge on Mifid II options as Brexit nears

By Hugo Bromley October 29, 2020, Practice Insight from IFLR UK and European regulators continue to take strongly contrasting approaches to regulation after Brexit. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Commission (EC) have proposed considerable...

Workable ‘consolidated tape’ vital EU capital markets union hopes

By Justin Pugsley October 28, 2020, The Banker The successful launch of a “consolidated tape” is an objective benchmark by which the success of an EU capital markets union (CMU) can be measured, says Tilman Lüder, head of the...

Mifid best execution relief for buy side hangs by a thread

By Samuel Wilkes October 26, 2020, Risk Legislators in the European Parliament have put forward an amendment in a Covid-19 recovery package to suspend best execution reporting for buy-side firms under Europe’s markets rules – but lawmakers opposed to...

Industry Still at Odds Over Use Case for an EU Consolidated Tape

By Joanna Wright October 21, 2020, WatersTechnology Years after regulators began thinking about a consolidated tape—an aggregated source of market data that could bring deeper and more transparent capital markets to Europe—no provider has materialized. Almost everything about the...

EU Waves Through Capital Rules To Help Virus-Hit Economy

By Najiyya Budaly October 21, 2020, Law360 Member state governments agreed to measures Wednesday to amend the European Union’s capital markets rules in a bid to restart the economy after the fallout from the coronavirus crisis by helping the...

UK and EU regulators diverging on double volume caps

By Luke Clancy October 22, 2020, Risk UK and European Union regulators have set out contrasting approaches on EU rules that limit equities trading on unlit venues, indicating potential divergence between the two jurisdictions post-Brexit. Speaking at the TradeTech...

EU defers legal fix to Brexit swaps trading ban on branches

By Samuel Wilkes October 21, 2020, Risk The Council of the European Union has ruled out amending key financial market rules to allow UK branches of EU firms to trade certain over-the-counter derivatives on UK venues at this...

Blast from the Past: Europe launches review of giant Mifid II trading rulebook

By Samuel Agini and Fareed Sahloul February 17, 2020, Financial News The European Commission has kicked off a review of its giant rulebook for trading financial products, with a number of its key principles having struggled to take hold over the past two years....

Best execution U-Turn in Europe: What does the industry think?

By Andrew Saks October 15, 2020, Finance Feeds Good news or bad news? Could it be that the bungling European regulators are so disorganized that they would waste an absolute fortune in designing and implementing an incredibly bureaucratic...

Research reveals £100k difference in platform Sipp costs

By Imogen Tew October 14, 2020, FT Adviser Investors could pay nearly £100,000 more in pension costs while saving for retirement depending on their choice of platform, according to new research. The data showed a starting pot of £100,000...

Brexit Stand Off: Post Brexit Impacts Still Not Fully Formed

By Adrian Whelan, Brown Brothers Harriman Originally published at the On the Regs blog Brexit is certainly rising in minds of asset managers, regulators, and investors as we reach the impending conclusion of the transition period on 11.00 p.m....

Brexit: firms brace for immediate enforcement

By Hugo Bromley October 13, 2020, Practice Insight from IFLR The financial services industry is unprepared for many of the consequences of Brexit – and no one knows how forgiving regulators will be.At the start of September, the UK...

Rethink of Mifid, MAR extraterritorial impact ‘on the table’

By Samuel Wilkes October 9, 2020, Risk Problems associated with the extraterritorial reach of European Union market abuse rules will be tackled in due course, according to a Spanish regulator. Rodrigo Buenaventura, general director of markets at the...

No extension for Mifid II reporting after Brexit – FCA

By Wendy Lisney October 1, 2020, Global Investor Group Mifid II transaction reporting regimes must be in place by the end of the Brexit transition period, and will not be granted an extension under temporary transitional power (TTP), according...

Covid-19 struck consolidated tape regains attention as market seeks clarity

By Alice Tchernookova September 30, 2020, Practice Insight from IFLR Originally planned as part of Mifid II, the emergence of an EU consolidated tape provider (CTP) has been long in the making. While numerous market consultations had eventually led...

A little help from our friends: banks team up as FX trading gets tougher

By Tommy Wilkes September 23, 2020, Reuters Faced with the costs of competing in a world of electronic and algorithmic trading, many banks are outsourcing parts of their foreign exchange businesses, a trend that may cement big lenders’ dominance...