LONDON - Almost two-thirds of London-based investment companies admit that they are not ready or are not aware if they are ready for the new European rules that aim to reform banks and exchanges, according to a new report published by pan-European industry association, MiFID Joint Working Group.
The MiFID Joint Working Group surveyed 35 firms to know if they had a strategy to deal with the new rules. Over 80 percent of the respondents acknowledged that they did not have a technological strategy in place to deal with the new Markets in the Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
Over two-thirds admitted that they did not know how to handle the obligation of publishing trading statistics in a comprehensive manner. The MiFID is due to be effective from April 2007. It has already been postponed by a year owing to the huge changes that it entails for the financial firms.
"The findings of our first survey demonstrate that getting ready for MiFID is far from 'job done' and the more one looks into the detail the more questions are raised as to what being ready really involves," said Bob Fuller, co-chair of the IT subject group of the MiFID JWG. "However it is encouraging that firms are already thinking about the next steps by allocating resources to tackle the technology challenges posed by this directive."
The new directives aims to bring into effect a pan-EU market for all financial products including stocks and bonds. This plan would naturally have an impact on firms dealing with securities in the 25-nation bloc.
The MiFID Joint Working Group said that it would be carrying out similar surveys among hedge funds to find out if they are ready for the new rules.
Posted
on : Tue, 01 Nov 2005 16:15 GMT | Investments News
By : Pippa Fielding
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