CityCompass Research says that it has surveyed 58 buy side financial institutions located in the UK concerning the benefits of MiFID. 69% saw no business benefits at all, with ‘don’t knows’ at 17%. The survey also covered client services, cost and compliance issues, where 43% expected their agents to deal with MiFID compliance and bear the related costs. There was no expectation that clients will gain improved services upon MiFID implementation, with a massive 93% anticipating rising costs for investors. The survey was conducted by telephone interview between March and May 2006 – further information on how to obtain a copy of the results can be found at www.citycompass.org.
Gary Wright, Managing Director, CityCompass Research said “We were astounded by the responses from the buy side at this stage of MiFID’s implementation. Despite the extensive media coverage of MiFID and the sterling work of ‘MiFID Connect’ the message has clearly not got through to business people in buy side firms. CityCompass Research has been working closely with Investmaster to outline the many positive business aspects that MiFID offers and will be present our findings at the market briefing in London on the 29th June. The most worrying response to the survey is the high expectation that client costs will increase. It appears the single market in Europe is going to be paid for by the investors”
Neville Margison, Product Director at Investmaster, commented: “The survey demonstrates very clearly that a perception change is still a much needed priority for the industry. Fundamentally, buy side institutions should be approaching MiFID as a mid-to long term strategic business opportunity, not as a short term drain on resources and a cue for rising costs.
At Investmaster we are working hard to help demonstrate the potential gains for institutions. Through sharing our own research with clients through a programme of workshops and user groups, and through our sponsorship of the public forum Briefing and our website mifidsolutions.com, we are aiming to help define the business issues as well as resulting systems implications for our customers.”