MiFID: Markets in Financial Instruments Directives: Conflicts of interests and the impact of the so-called "inducement rule" on banks

Amongst the interventions of the EU Financial Services Action Plan, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directives have made a considerable impact on financial intermediaries. The goal of this research is to analyse conflicts of interests, inducements and ethical business conducts in the relationship between investment firms and investors, with special regard to the Italian market. The common thread which links such themes is their potentiality to generate legal and reputational risks and to have great economic consequences. This work is basically divided into three sections. The first one synthetically covers the evolution of MiFID. The second one is devoted to the innovations brought about by MiFID with regard to conflicts of interests and inducements. The last section deals with the practical aspects of such rules: the organisational barriers, the techniques utilised by intermediaries in order to cope with economic impacts, and the ideas which spread over so as to tackle the specific issues linked to the Italian financial system. The work also includes an illustration of how an Italian bank in effect tries to comply with MiFID’s provisions.