Asset managers warn on EU rules
LONDON’S asset management industry body said yesterday it was “not convinced” proposed new EU regulation of financial trading platforms would improve the markets.
The Investment Management Association (IMA), whose members manage £3.37 trillion of assets, said plans to define venues as organised or multilateral trading facilities were too broad.
In its submission to the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) consultation, IMA wholesale director Guy Sears said: “Rules for non-equity markets should be specific to each instrument and should not necessarily be modelled on equity markets.”
Sears said he understood why the EU wanted a clear definition for “the waterfall of market service providers caught by MiFID”, but was “not convinced the new category of organised trading venue…will result in a better market structure”. “The OTF concept is too widely drawn, and the meaning of ‘organised’ unclear,” Sears said.