We are now in week 6 of MiFID II. Although the announcements have settled down, we now see a few pieces of news since our last post that point to some of the impact.

The FCA report on algorithmic trading under MiFID II earlier this week  (see here) is one of the items that has caught the attention of regulators, according to this article on FT.com. It is felt that the impact is only now beginning to be felt, and will increase as some of the carve outs expire. The delay in the start of the requirement for investment firms to only trade with counterparties with LEIs has pushed out some pain, but this is likely to be short lived: This article on the Money Marketing web site discusses the frustration of some in obtaining LEIs and also of significant price differentials between different issuers of LEIs (“LOUs”).

Not all are gloomy about the opportunities offered by MiFID II: This article on The Trade News reports on increases in revenue at ICE, via the offering of regulatory products. Not all are happy however: This article on City AM reports on the dossier constructed by Gina Miller of SCM Direct, which lists firms thought to be non compliant with the investor protection rules of MiFID II.

As time goes on, and the rules bed down, we can expect more news, and possibly more regulatory pronouncements. Some of these will clarify how some rules are to be implemented. But others may be the beginning of rule enforcement.