On October 30, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a webpage with detailed information regarding its October 19 conference on the revised and recast Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and its associated regulation (MiFID II) for wholesale firms.

MiFID II is slated to come into effect across all 28 EU member states on January 3, 2017. MiFID II amends existing EU legal provisions on authorization (i.e., licensing), conduct of business and organizational requirements for providers of investment services. These rules aim at strengthening the protection of investors, through the introduction of new requirements on product governance, independent investment advice and cross-selling. These rules also extend existing rules to structured deposits and improve requirements in several areas, including the responsibility of management bodies, inducements, information and reporting to clients, remuneration of staff, and best execution. Additionally, MiFID II specifies requirements in relation to the authorization and the organizational rules applicable to different types of trading venues, among them a specific new type of trading venue known as an organized trading facility. MiFID II also contains the regulatory tools intended to improve supervision of EU commodity derivatives markets.

A wholesale firm in FCA terminology means an FCA authorized firm that does not have permission to engage with, deal with, advise or act for retail clients and captures most hedge fund managers, private equity fund managers, proprietary trading firms (to the extent they are already authorized by the FCA) and some investment advisers.

The FCA’s new webpage contains links to videos of each of the conference sessions, covering the following range of topics:

  • MiFID II: The road ahead
  • Investor protection under MiFID II
  • Panel session: Implementing MiFID II across Europe
  • Trading venues
  • Post-trade transparency/ reporting
  • Microstructural issues
  • Changes to best execution requirements
  • Non-equity transparency
  • Transaction reporting
  • Conduct of business
  • Commodities
  • Data publications

The webpage also contains links to FCA updates on MiFID II:

  • Authorization timescales –confirmation that the draft MiFID II application forms for those firms that need to get authorized/ licensed by the FCA will be posted on the FCA’s website in the first quarter of 2016 (with further guidance and information on the application process).
  • Implementation timetable – the FCA aspires to publish a consultation paper on market issues in December followed by a conduct issues consultation paper in March 2016. The FCA also hopes to open a “MiFID Authorizations gateway” in April 2016 and publish finalized rules and a policy statement in June 2016.

The FCA’s MiFID II wholesale conference webpage is available here.