The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive

According to Sanjima DeZoysa, Banking & Technology Editor for gtnews, the financial services industry currently faces an ..... amount of regulation that have two distinct objectives.

The first is the increasingly ..... compliance environment in which firms must prove they have effective controls and processes in place to ensure accountability and an effective corporate governance model.

The second objective is the ..... goal of the regulators, particularly in Europe, to encourage greater harmonisation, competition and customer protection within all financial markets.

This commentary considers some of the most significant regulations affecting the industry and how organisations are currently ..... with this.

Most EU regulatory work is based on the Financial Services Action Plan; the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) is a fundamental ..... of the FSAP and aims at increasing the range of investment activities that can be passported by firms, making it easier to conduct cross-border business.

One of the main objectives of MiFID is to ensure that all clients have the necessary knowledge and experience to understand the risks involved in a product before investing in it: banks are ..... to ensure that retail clients are informed of potential risks connected with trading financial instruments.

While the ..... behind MiFID are justified, there has been criticism about the regulators' expectations of the implementation process.

"More ..... should be taken of the project management disciplines that are needed if legislation is to be implemented properly without giving rise to undue risks that occur if consequential changes are rushed," insists Paul Richards at the International Capital Markets Association.

"While MiFID has now come into force, there is still more work to be done in terms of whether firms have dotted the i's and ..... the t's on issues such as documenting procedures and finalising client agreements and consents," says Bernadine Reese, director, financial services group at Protiviti.

In the UK, further policy documents are expected in 2008 from the country's regulatory body, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), and a key issue ..... forward will be the position of collective investment scheme (CIS) operators in the post-MiFID world.