The TRADE 63 - Q1 2020 | Page 40

[ R E S E A R C H | U N B U N D L I N G ] Reviving research in an unbundled world As the AMF in France looks to revive the declining research market in Europe under unbundling, David Whitehouse finds that providers who can supply high-quality ESG research could be the winners of an upcoming review of MiFID II. A recent move by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) in France to create a virtual marketplace to improve the quality of financial research has drawn short shift from investors just starting to find ways of navigating the MiFID II regulations introduced in January 2018. The proposal would do “very little” to fix the unit economics for sell-side brokerages, argues Mark Pacitti, founder and managing director at primary research specialist, Woozle Research, based in London. Neither will it make markets more liquid for 40 // TheTRADE // Spring 2020