FSA praised for adopting MiFID rules

KPMG has praised City watchdog, the
Financial Services Authority (FSA) for
being one of the first of the European regulators to transpose the requirements
of the
Markets
in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) into the UK legal and regulatory
requirements.

The FSA did this ahead of the deadline (1 February 2007) for individual
Member State transposition.

On Friday 26 January, the FSA issued its Policy Statement 07/02 and the
Handbook text for the MiFID requirements.

However, the precise requirements remain unclear in a number of areas.

Bernadine
Reese, director at KPMG said: ‘Firms can begin to plan now for their best
execution strategies, so that any changes, including those to their IT systems,
will be able to be finalised in advance of the 1 November deadline. However,
they must be prepared to revisit their approach as further information and
guidance is received from CESR and the Commission.’

KPMG said it anticipated that the FSA is likely to be consulting with
industry on remaining areas of concern over the coming months, including
demonstrating the suitability of advice to professional clients for record
keeping requirements.

Further reading:

European rules to cost London £1bn

Sarbox clever

MiFID: The IT reckoning cometh