With the deadline looming closer, the extraterritorial reach
of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (Mifid II)
on third countries is yet to be clarified - but a regulatory
domino effect is likely.
The directive has come as something of a wakeup call to the
US, a financial system more used to imposing its own regulation
on the world than being made to comply with others, but the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) remains silent on
whether it will provide any form of relief.
Thom Tillis, a US senator of North Carolina, recently penned
a letter to chairman Jay Clayton asking for clarification of
the SEC’s stance on regulatory relief of the EU
legislation, reiterating a point addressed in an earlier
IFLR article.
Once enforced, the directive will require investment
research payments to be unbundled from executions, forcing
clearly defined identifiable charges so that anyone providing
or receiving research...