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News round up: rebundling
The conundrum
In May, the UK’ s Financial Conduct Authority’ s( FCA) implemented new rules allowing fund managers to pay for research with a joint payment option, essentially allowing for the‘ bundling’ together of payments for trade execution and research.
This followed the FCA’ s July 2024 decision to re-introduce an optional element of rebundling for Mifid investment firms, with the UK buy-side able to facilitate joint payments for third-party research and execution services.
The topic is one which is keeping firms on their toes and reinvigorating the debate around the previously delicate balance
As regulators’ to and fro between research bundling and unbundling comes to an end with the recent joint payment option news, CLAUDIA PREECE rounds up the current state of play when it comes to the payment for research discussion and delves into the market reaction following the UK watchdog’ s recent decision.
of research-related decisions weighing on trading desk movements – something desks of course want to avoid.
“ If you speak to a dealing desk, they don ' t want to go back to a rebundled market because that has the connotations of directed trades and all the inefficiencies that entails. But that needn’ t be the case – use of CSAs should ensure you
“[ dealing desks ] don ' t want to go back to a rebundled market because that has the connotations of directed trades and all the inefficiencies that entails. But that needn’ t be the case.”
ANDREW QUICK, GLOBAL HEAD OF EXECUTION SERVICES AT REDBURN ATLANTIC
26 // TheTRADE // Q2 2025