Bovill’s Damon Batten updated our Asian firms on MiFID II and other EU markets regulatory changes

Bovill

In a number of presentations across Singapore and Hong Kong, we attempted to look back, take stock and process the last five years of markets reform in the EU. This has been a period of rapid and far-reaching change, including a G20 led overhaul of regulation for derivatives markets, a significant update to market abuse regulation, and a root and branch review of how markets function under MiFID II.

The sessions drew out some of the lessons learned, as firms have sought to implement this complex regulatory change agenda. Of particular interest to our clients and contacts in Asia were the challenges around MiFID II transaction reporting. Local regulators will be watching with interest, to see if the initial problems with the FCA systems not being able to cope with the increased volume of data will be overcome and the new reporting will lead to a revolution in market abuse detection and prevention. Also of interest was what is coming next, in the form of GDPR, Brexit, EMIR II and possibly MiFID III?!

From the sessions, it was clear that there is still a great deal of concern and confusion amongst firms outside the EU, with a perceived risk that in the large amount of material associated with the European regulations that some key impacts may be missed. For the sellside, some of the immediate concerns include the provision of direct electronic access to EU venues, and how the share trading obligation will function for non-EU stocks. For the buyside there remain concerns around the use of legal entity identifiers, and the implications for firms of the unbundling of research from execution fees.

To find out more about any of the topics covered at these events contact Damon Batten or Rebecca Thorpe below.

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