Mifid is new compliance priority, says report

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VIENNA/ZURICH – A new study from software company AIM has found the financial services industry has switched its focus away from Basel II compliance and towards the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid).

The study, released today, looks at the forces, challenges and future areas of investment in risk management and data automation. It reveals that improving the quality of reference data is increasingly important for operational risk managers and that while regulatory responsibility is undiminished, the focus is more on Mifid, ahead of its Thursday deadline.

Another major finding is a drive for back-office efficiency. Firms are improving their straight-through processing (STP) in a constant evolution to reduce errors and costs in back-office workflow.

Martin Buchberger, AIM’s head of marketing, says: “The results show that companies see the close interdependence between high-quality reference data management and operational efficiency.”

Some 58% of companies said efficiency was driving their improvements in reference data management, with 54% planning investments in the automation of reference data over the next two years.

Results show the operational risks and potential losses of a lack of automation of corporate actions data, with 33% of respondents increasing their automation in this traditionally manual and labour-intensive area.

The survey also concluded that the number of companies preferring to buy a data management solution has increased from 22% in 2006 to 41% this year, with 38% of respondents still relying on internal solutions, as more market players evaluate data sourcing infrastructure.