Financial services firms may be overwhelmed by the European Union’s proposed Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, as it will place gr...

Financial services firms may be overwhelmed by the European Union’s proposed Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, as it will place greater emphasis on the responsibilities of senior executives, according to the UK’s Securities and Investment Institute. New Conduct of Business rules have yet to be formulated by the UK’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority. Consultations on these are expected in the next few months once details of the wording of the directive have been finalised at the European level. The scale of MiFID mean that it should be seen as an enterprise-wide issue, rather than just a compliance one, according to Simon Culhan, chief executive of the SII. ”Our members are becoming aware of the significant amount of work involved,” he said. The institute warns that project management plans must be established now to give firms a chance of comfortably meeting the MiFID deadline of April 2007. Areas of consideration include client classification, customer agreements, transaction reporting, and best execution systems and controls.