MiFID II: Seven key implications for asset and wealth managers
By , 5 Jun 15
EY’s seven ways MiFID II will affect asset and wealth managers
In December last year, two documents outlining one of the biggest regulatory reforms in Europe’s financial history were released, reaching an almost biblical total of 1600 pages.
If, for some inexplicable reason, you didn’t manage to find time to read the documents, they broadly addressed the implementation of MiFID II, a piece of legislation due to be introduced in January 2017.
The papers in question were the Final Report of the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) Final Technical Advice report to the Commission on the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II), and a consultation paper on regulatory technical standards and implementing technical standards for MiFID II.
MiFID II, currently being turned into legislation by ESMA, aims to improve a wide variety of areas across the European financial regulatory environment, including but not necessarily limited to:
- Investor protection;
- Transparency;
- Data Publication;
- Micro-structural issues;
- Requirements applying to and on trading Revenues;
- Commodity derivatives; and
- Portfolio compression
In releasing a consultation paper alongside a key report, ESMA hoped to set out the proposed technical standards and details of industry and trade associations’ views on key MiFID II implications.
According to EY, much of the MiFID II package will impact the environment in which asset and wealth managers operate as opposed to being obligations on them directly.
However, the company adds that managers need to adapt their practices to operate in the post-MiFID market environment and must also address the numerous investor protection requirements and reporting requirements through a “gap analysis”.
