Subjects:

Banking and Finance

Contents:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Matthew Elderfield, Financial Services Authority

Chapter 2: Scope/Authorisation and Passport Rights

Chris Bates, Clifford Chance LLP

Chapter 3: Conduct of Business Standards –

Organisational

Michael Raffan, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Chapter 4: Conduct of Business Standards –

Fair Dealing for Clients

Rob Price, Financial Services Authority

Chapter 5: Conduct of Business Standards –

Best Execution and Order Handling

Dick Frase, Dechert LLP

Chapter 6: Transparency and Transaction Reporting Standards

Verena Ross, Financial Services Authority

Chapter 7: Regulated Market and MTF Standards

Adam Kinsley, London Stock Exchange and James Smethurst, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Chapter 8: Commodity Derivatives

Jonathan Herbst, Norton Rose and Mark Woodward, ICE

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) is a major part of the EU’s Financial Services Action Plan, and will have an enormous impact on the European financial services sector. It extends the coverage of the Investment Services Directive regime and introduces new and more extensive requirements to which firms will have to adapt, particularly in relation to their conduct of business and internal organisation.

This Guide provides details about the level 1 and level 2 provisions of MiFID. It is designed to provide and overview of the key provisions of MiFID to help practitioners in the financial services industry navigate these complex and interlocking pieces of legislation. From its humble origins in the Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) adpted at the Lisbon summit, MiFID has emerged as perhaps the most important piece of legislation in the FSAP and certainly the most controversial. The compliance costs of MiFID are very significant for firms caught within its scope and the benefits are uncertain and debatable. This Guide is designed to set out clearly and concisely the key provisions of MiFID to help firms understand, comply with and perhaps benefit from MiFID.

This Guide has been prepared by a range of leading regulators, lawyers and industry practitioners who have followed MiFID's development closely. In many cases, the authors were intimately involved with the negotiation of MiFID level 1 or level 2 texts from the government or industry. While the views represented in the Guide are of the authors in a personal capacity, they are clearly informed by their close involvement with the formative stages of MiFID as it evolved out of the old Investment Services Directive.