This Financial Insights study discusses the new EU directive on investment services, known as MiFID, which will come into effect in 2007, introducing wide-ranging new regulatory powers for exchanges, multilateral trading facilities, and sell- and buy-side firms. All market participants should begin now to plan for MiFID because significant technology investment and changes in business process may be needed. This study describes the key features of MiFID and how it will impact the capital market value chain and the technology vendors.
"There are significant new opportunities, but also major threats offered by MiFID," says Simona Macellari, manager, Research and Consulting for Financial Insights EMEA. "We are likely to see considerable consolidation by both market participants and technology vendors as firms jockey for position ahead of the implementation date."
According to Angela Vacca, senior research analyst for European IT Opportunity at Financial Insights EMEA, "IT players will have to identify their value proposition in a clear way due to the increasing competition generated by MiFID. In addition, they will have to adapt their go-to-market strategy to cover the emerging needs generated by the regulation while providing more value."