By Gary Stone, Market Structure and Regulatory Policy Strategist, Bloomberg
MiFID II is much more than just responding to the EU’s new inducement rules.
The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II does not place direct obligations on buy-side or sell-side firms operating in Apac. However, because it touches nearly every aspect of their EU customers’ investment workflow, MiFID II will indirectly affect Apac firms in ways traders, operations and compliance managers may not realize.
Apac firms that do not understand MiFID II and its new standards of transparency may place themselves at a competitive disadvantage. In addition, firms that do not help their EU customers with MiFID II may risk losing their business.
In many cases, the first step for Apac firms to become “MiFID II friendly” involves obtaining an LEI, or Legal Entity Identification number. The LEI is a unique 20-character, alpha-numeric ID based on the global ISO 17442 standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization. Each unique ID is associated with a single legal entity. Similar to the way people have a passport or national insurance ID in the EU, firms are identified by the legal entity identifier.
The LEI became the EU’s standard customer/counterparty identifier under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation derivatives reform. The LEI concept has subsequently become hardwired into EU legislation, including MiFID II and the Market Abuse Regulation. The code is how EU firms are required to identify their EU and non-EU relationships in their regulatory reports.
The European Securities and Markets Authority’s guidance on LEIs is clear: EU firms’ counterparties are required to have an LEI before they can start transacting with each other. As a result, the LEI has become part of the EU’s new Know Your Customer and on-boarding process.
If you’re an Apac sell-side firm that executes EU customer orders in Apac financial assets, or a buy-side firm that invests in EU financial instruments or has EU investors, then there are three things that you can do to improve your competitive position by helping your EU relationships become MiFID II compliant:
- Obtain an LEI through an accredited issuer.
- Ask your EU counterparties, “How is MiFID II changing your business?”
- Implement answers to the question, “Besides getting an LEI, what else do you need me to do so you can comply with MiFID II?”
For the last year or more, EU firms have been extremely focused on MiFID II compliance related to their relationships within the EU. Most of the discussions about the extraterritorial effect of the directive have focused on research compliance and management. MiFID II places more than a dozen other new obligations on EU investment firms related to order management, best execution, trade surveillance and reporting, just to name a few.
With the 3 January 2018 implementation date rapidly approaching, Apac firms should strike up a conversation with their EU relationships about how they can be more MiFID II friendly now.
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