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Spotlight-blackEU Regulatory Reform (more stories)

01 March 2011

4,200 in 60 Days: MiFID Review Public Comments

Talk about a wow factor. The European Commission says it received more than 4,200 comments in 60 working days on its MiFID review. Mizen says the number illustrates the importance of the review and wonders how the EC will handle the comments.

Wow!

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t 4,200 and change. That’s the number of responses the European Commission said it received to its public consultation on the MiFID review ("MiFID II"). All submitted within 60 working days, with the Christmas holiday period thrown in for good measure.

The size of this response should leave nobody in any doubt about the importance of MiFID II and highlights the level of interest… and concern.

I wonder what the European Commission was expecting, to what extent it is set up to handle this level of input. To wit: how will responses be sorted and sifted, how will they weigh the pros and cons? It’s an awful lot of paperwork to get through and many of the opinions conflict.

How great a part does the size of the submitting company, the level of business, the participant’s function in the market and the strength of the lobbying effort play in commissioners’ review?

Even if it turns out that 4,200 number is not quite right, that the true number of legitimate comments are more along the lines of 500, 600 or 700, these questions remain valid and the EC is still facing a big, big task.

Every response matters irrespective of the size of the company. There is a huge breadth of respondents in terms of market function, sector and geography, reflecting the extension of MiFID rules beyond equities and their impact beyond Europe.

To be sure, the European Commission is working to an extremely short timeline but we are at a crucial point in the formation of the European financial markets and there needs to be a level of comfort here. It is hard not to be sceptical that sufficient attention can be paid to the input that represents, in the commission’s own words, “important guidance” to a formal proposal.

Crikey!

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3 Comments to "4,200 in 60 Days: MiFID Review Public Comments":
  • Anon_avatar
    Anonymous

    02 March 2011

    What concerns me is that 600 or 4200 responses, there are going to be so many conflicting views, and do we have confidence in their ability to balance these, how will they weight them, I cannot imagine were one starts and what methodology one can use.

  • Missing
    PaiGow

    02 March 2011

    Just curious, do you know how many they received for MiFID 1? Also, surprised to see only 360 are "Contributions authorised for contribution". That seems a bit suspicious.

  • Comment_tabb_-_miranda_mizen_b
    mmizen

    02 March 2011

    I don't, interesting question. The contributions authorised are those from organisations that have registered, and responses from others are published separately (not sure where). I think the stakes are higher now and the rules will be tighter, so I would expect much more comment. Input here is welcome from anyone in the know.

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