Surprise! EU Plans MIFID Rollback to Aid Pandemic Recovery

By Adrian Whelan, Brown Brothers Harriman Originally published at the On the Regs blog Unexpected but welcome surprise Anyone can agree that 2020 has been a year that is far from usual. The onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic...

Buy side hopes for best execution reporting carve-out

By Ben St. Clair August 4, 2020, Risk The European Commission’s proposed rollback of best execution reporting has left some wondering why the carve-out stopped short of the buy side’s reporting obligations. The proposed amendments to the second Markets...

CFTC block trade plan gets cold shoulder

By Sharon Thiruchelvam August 3, 2020, Risk A Commodity Futures Trading Commission plan to revise US rules for block trades in swaps has drawn a cool response from the industry, with participants at an advisory committee providing feedback that...

Transparency vs clarity: the Mifid swaps conundrum

By Samuel Wilkes July 29, 2020, Risk Sometimes you just can’t do right for doing wrong – and regulators are no exception. As the European Securities and Markets Authority discovered when it tried to clarify Europe’s labyrinthine rules on...

Rosenblatt survey highlights buy-side disconnect with changes to MiFID II

By Hayley McDowell July 29, 2020, The Trade Buy-side market participants hold conflicting views on sweeping changes to MiFID II that were proposed by the EU markets regulator earlier this month, according to a recent snap poll from Rosenblatt...

‘A collective shrug’: industry reacts to Mifid II research reforms

By Hugo Bromley July 30, 2020, Practice Insight from IFLR After months of meetings and deliberation, the European Commission’s proposed reforms to Mifid II’s research unbundling framework will have very little impact on the market, and may not even...

Ethical funds balk at Europe’s new disclosure regime

By James Ryder July 23, 2020, Risk Any asset manager worth their salt offers ethical products focusing on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. But does the manager screen these investments against threats to endangered species of wildlife? Or...

Advised clients more likely to buy ESG

By Imogen Tew July 28, 2020, FTAdviser Advised clients are more likely to increase their sustainable investments in the coming months, research has shown, in a sign advisers are becoming more receptive to ESG investing. Data from Boring Money...

European Commission confirms roll back of MiFID II rules in recovery package

By Hayley McDowell July 28, 2020, The Trade The European Commission has confirmed that it will remove certain requirements under MiFID II as part of a package aimed at advancing Europe’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Unbundling research requirements...

Data generation likely to drive ISIN changes – DSB

By Wendy Lisney July 22, 2020, Global Investor Group Data generation and alignment are likely to be the focus of any changes to the calibration and use of International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) for derivatives, according to the Derivatives...

Insurers Warn Against EU ‘Sustainable Preference’ Scheme

By Lucia Osborne-Crowley July 27, 2020, Law360 European insurers and banks have warned the European Commission that its plan to enforce strict new rules governing which investments financial services companies can offer to customers, based on their environmental impact,...

Derivatives crucial to EU’s Green Deal – report

By Wendy Lisney July 16, 2020, Global Investor Group Derivatives markets have the potential to make a crucial contribution to the EU’s European Green Deal by supporting capital raising and investment for the transition to a low-carbon economy, a...

Greenwashing is not a “threat”

By Perle Battistella July 15, 2020, Global Investor Group The Hague-headquartered NN Invesment Partner (NN IP) said in an environmental, social and governance (ESG) webinar that greenwashing is not a threat when you are an ESG specialist. Greenwashing is...

Europe Readies MiFID Rollback to Increase Recovery Investment

By Alexander Weber and Silla Brush July 22, 2020, Bloomberg The European Union is planning to roll back landmark regulations on securities trading and investment research, arguing that softer rules on the finance industry are needed to help the...

No Mifid equivalence for UK at end of Brexit transition

By Samuel Wilkes July 21, 2020, Risk The European Commission will not initiate an assessment vital to preserving cross-border trading between the European Union and UK, citing an incomplete legal framework that prevents EU authorities from starting the process....

Headhunting: the rise of the post-MiFID II trader

By Hayley McDowell July 20, 2020, The Trade An outsider would be forgiven for thinking that the role of the buy-side trader is under threat. As active asset management continues its battle with increasing industry pressures, we know that...

MiFID II Fines Totaled €1.8M In 2019, ESMA Finds

By Najiyya Budaly July 14, 2020, Law360 The European Securities and Markets Authority said Monday that national regulators from 15 member states imposed sanctions and measures on financial institutions between January and December 2019 for breaching the revised Markets...

More than a quarter of advisers actively reviewing their client segments

July 20, 2020, Wealth Adviser More than one in four (27 per cent) advisers are now actively reviewing their client segments compared to only 3 per cent last year, according to the latest annual census from adviser-built wrap platform...

MiFID II unbundling rules need fixing, but it won’t be this year

By Paulina Pielichata July 13, 2020, Pensions&Investments Money managers operating in Europe do not expect to see the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II overhauled in 2020. But they said the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic showed that the...

Mifid’s pre-trade transparency is ‘a failed experiment’

By Samuel Wilkes July 14, 2020, Risk Market participants fear Europe’s rules on how large dealers and venues disclose pre-trade quotes might not be worth salvaging as part of an upcoming review of regulation. A European trading venue source...

Brussels moves to preserve access to London clearing houses

By Jim Brunsden and Philip Stafford July 9, 2020, Financial Times Brussels is to adopt emergency measures to preserve Europe’s access to crucial UK financial market infrastructure after the country’s post-Brexit transition period expires, the bloc’s regulation chief said...

“Swift action” needed on clearing house equivalence

By Wendy Lisney July 10, 2020, Global Investor Group Derivatives trade bodies are calling on European regulators to provide clarity on whether European central counterparties (CCPs) will be able to access UK liquidity pools under the European Markets Infrastructure...

‘Improving’ Mifid post-trade transparency splits markets

By Samuel Wilkes July 9, 2020, Risk It’s uncontroversial to say that financial markets transparency in Europe has so far failed. Launched in 2018, the current transparency regime has created fixed income and derivatives trade data that is mostly...

Buy-side firms reject EMS brokerage charges

By Luke Clancy July 6, 2020, Risk Leading buy-side firms are calling time on the brokerage charging models used by some liquidity aggregators, joining dealers in a growing protest. In at least two cases, buy-side users of an aggregator...

ESG disclosure rules must align with Mifid – EFAMA

By Perle Battistella July 8, 2020, Global Investor Group The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has responded to the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) consultation paper on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure regulation, stating that...

New FCA boss urged to focus on equivalence post-Brexit

By Alex Rolandi June 23, 2020, Funds Europe UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority’s new chief executive Nikhil Rathi has been called on to ensure that equivalency is a key priority throughout ongoing Brexit negotiations. Rathil, who was appointed...

Mifid II could fragment market after Brexit – ISDA

By Wendy Lisney July 3, 2020, Global Investor Group The Mifid II regulatory framework’s lack of equivalence decisions for non-EU trading venues could lead to market fragmentation after Brexit, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has warned. In...

Mifid II divergence will come from EU, not UK

By Hugo Bromley June 30, 2020, Practice Insight from IFLR Regulatory divergence on Mifid II will occur – but will be driven by the European Commission, according to several sources speaking to Practice Insight. UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak outlined...

Mifid II: systematic internalisers defend themselves

June 25, 2020, Practice Insight from IFLR Systematic internalisers’ (SI) contribution to the market is not being considered in the debate over their future, according to several sources speaking to Practice Insight. Both Esma ...

Commission considers 19 actions for new CMU action plan

By Jasper Cox and Jean Comte June 26, 2020, GlobalCapital The European Commission has split a new set of initiatives to progress the Capital Markets Union into three sections based around companies’ recovery and growth, individuals’ savings, and the...