[ I N
D E P T H
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M I F I D
I I ]
T
he revised Markets in Financial
Instruments Directive, or Mi-
FID II to use its more common-
ly known name, has been a long
time coming. A decade after
the global credit crisis shook
the capital markets to the core
and pushed some of the largest
institutions to the very brink
of collapse, regulators have
been working flat out to ensure new rules are brought in to
increase investor protection and market transparency.
And so, after years of blood, sweat and tears leading up to
the introduction of the new regulatory regime, 3 January
came and went with only the barest of ripples to disturb the
markets. The early days of the new regime haven’t thrown up
the kind of turmoil some pessimists predicted, so far at least,
failing to stunt activity at major asset management firms
throughout Europe.
“To be honest, it feels like business as usual,” said Chris-
toph Hock, head of multi-asset trading at Union Investment.
“There were not any major disruptions or a drop in facilita-
tion of liquidity across all asset classes in the first two weeks
of MiFID II.
“For me, it’s a continuation of recent trends we’ve seen and
after running a multi-asset trading desk for two years now,
we are running the business the same as we did before. In
this context, we don’t need the regulator to tell us what to
do,” he added.
For Matthew McLoughlin, head of trading at Liontrust As-
set Management, it has been a similar experience to Hock, as
he described the industry’s approach to the new regulatory
landscape as being more cautious, but still business as usual
nonetheless.
“There were not any major disruptions or a drop in facilitation of
liquidity across all asset classes in the first two weeks of MiFID II”
CHRISTOPH HOCK, HEAD OF MULTI-ASSET TRADING, UNION INVESTMENT
36 // TheTrade // Spring 2018