Regardless of which side of the financial street you are on – buyside or sellside – trying to gain clarity on the costs of research unbundling under MiFID II is one of the biggest priorities and a key component of the planning roadmap.
With the deadline only six months away, managers and brokers need to determine how best to price research and what they are willing to pay for it. What is the depth and breadth of research production, and how much is it likely to cost to manage research under MiFID II?
These are critical questions that the industry is still tap-dancing around to try and find common ground. Ultimately, managers and brokers need to have completed a ‘research audit’ to better understand the economic implications of research production/consumption before they can engage in meaningful dialogue.
Much is vested in this exercise. Managers don’t want to be over-stretching their costs, while brokers want to set realistic prices to remain in the front-office of their clients.
To help set the parameters of these discussions, we would encourage you to complete the following short survey on research costs, the findings of which will be released in the coming weeks.
Conversations are likely to ramp up after the summer, so any clarity we can bring in the interim, should help sharpen people’s minds. To complete the survey, please click here.
