The European Banking Federation (EBF) welcomes the entry into force of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), which becomes applicable throughout the EU and the European Economic Area from 1 November 2007. Europe’s banks, trading platforms and ancillary service providers will from then on conduct their business under the new MiFID regime.

Banks are looking to the MiFID to herald a new era of trading in Europe building on the gains already achieved by the Investment Service Directive, predecessor to the MiFID.

"Banks in particular look forward to a competitive environment in trading where the emphasis will be on a single regime for Europe where the market is open for new entrants. We welcome the fact that it will offer a competitive service, whilst providing a high level of protection to consumers" declared Guido Ravoet, Secretary General of the EBF.

However, some jurisdictions have not yet transposed the European legal text into the national legislation, a process which ought to have been completed by 31 January this year. This creates confusion and means that there will be clear competitive distortions in the European single market until all banks have the necessary legal certainty with which to undertake business under MiFID. "Efforts to implement the MiFID must be urgently stepped up in the countries that are currently behind" added Ravoet.

Due to the newness of the MiFID regime, with concepts, policies and systems untested in the real world, banks look to supervisors to be pragmatic in the way in which they tackle the ongoing implementation challenges that MiFID will no doubt generate in the coming weeks and months. The EBF especially looks to supervisors to arrive at workable solutions and a common approach to MiFID to overcome obstacles to doing business across the single market.