Green paper threatens to shake up retail financial services

The European Commission (EC) has published a green paper on retail financial services. The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid), due for implementation in November 2007, is designed to harmonise the European Union’s (EU) investment market and facilitate cross-border equities trading. However, despite Mifid, the objective of a single integrated European market remains a very distant dream for retail financial services.

The green paper follows the EC’s 2005 white paper on financi