CEPS : Financial Market data and MIFID

The opening-up of the market for equity market data, as foreseen in the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), raises the question of whether data will be sufficiently consolidated and of high enough quality, or whether the information will become too fragmented, thereby hindering price transparency and the implementation of bestexecution policies. This policy brief outlines the market for financial market data, the provisions of MiFID and the implementing measures regarding financial data and data consolidation. It also looks at the approaches taken by Committee of European Securities Regulators, the FSA and the US authorities. It concludes that markets should be capable of adapting and that additional licensing requirements, such as those proposed by the FSA, are in fact premature and might act as a barrier to the single market. Nor does it find that a US-style monopoly consolidator would be needed. Download the full report (.pdf 7 pages)