ECMI Books

Over the last decade, the securities industry has been revolutionized. Technological and market innovations urged regulators to respond by updating the rules on securities trading. While in the US, traditional stock exchanges were under attack from electronic trading systems (ECNs), the European Union wanted to increase competition by abolishing the monopoly of traditional exchanges and by allowing systemic internalization by banks.

The Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) is nothing short of a revolution. Introduced on 1 November 2007, it will have a profound, long-term impact on Europe’s securities markets. It will see banks operating as exchanges for certain activities, offering alternative execution services that more closely resemble the structure of over-the-counter markets, and will lead to the decentralisation of order execution in an array of venues previously governed by concentration rules.