IFR publish ‘Who’s Ready for MiFID’?

from PJ Di Giammarino of JWG-IT: The Financial Serivces industry think-tank

Thomson IFR announce the publication of ‘Who’s ready for MiFID?’ by PJ Di Giammarino, CEO, JWG-IT Think-Tank. The IFR Market Intelligence report is the first comprehensive healthcheck of EU capital markets’ new capabilities that need to be deployed in less than 50 workdays. The 73 responses to the survey cover a representative cross-section of the industry, featuring both buy and sell-side companies of varying sizes and focuses of business.

The snapshot is worrying. There is still widespread confusion about what needs to be done to comply with the directive and about the consequences for those that don’t:

1. The sell-side is feeling the heat across all the change drivers

2. Significant disconnects are apparent across the back-office

3. Firm resourcing and readiness varies considerably. Often compliance departments are unaware of their true position; many infrastructure managers hold a very different view

4. 95% expect fines for non-compliance in 2008 and are concerned about who will carry the can

5. All expect a “best execution” challenge from their customers
This uncertainty will have profound implications for the next three to four years as 20% of firms are investing to gain competitive advantage from their MIFID programmes now and some of these will have the capability to change the market.

“MiFID [is] a different challenge, in that there are no comprehensive instructions for the firm or the regulator and the industry faces significant “known unknowns”. This, not surprisingly, has resulted in firms taking different views on what to do, how to do it and the implications of their decisions. The differences are interesting and important for all parts of the financial services value chain. This report will help firms understand those differences and their own relative position in the industry.” from the foreword of the report by Nicholas Child, Managing Director, Head of EMEA Markets Compliance, Citigroup Global Markets Ltd.

The report’s online ‘MiFID Healthcheck’, is a self assessment tool for purchasers to assess their relative readiness against their peers and across their own organisation. It is timely as 2008 budgets, that will set the agenda for change and consequently the health of the industry, are currently being developed.

For more information:
please contact
Thomson IFR – Jonathan Price +44 (0) 20 7369 7575 jonathan.price@thomson.com
JWG-IT Think-Tank - PJ Di Giammarino +44 (0) 20 7870 8004 pj@jwg-it.eu

and please see Chris Skinner's latest publication: The Future of Investing in Europe's Markets after MiFID