Posted on by Sheena Gillett

Press Release

WMA’s ongoing work on MiFID II implementation

30th March 2015

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) again came under the spotlight last week (26th March 2015) as the FCA announced a call for firms and trade bodies to provide their opinions on how certain aspects of this EU directive could be implemented in the UK.

The Wealth Management Association (WMA) identified early on the importance of this issue and have been conducting an ongoing programme of review since ESMA’s Level 2 Advice to the Commission was published in December 2014. This consists of regular meetings with member firms to discuss individual aspects of the directive and ongoing discussions with them and the FCA on how best to implement the coming rule changes. The work is against the background of an incomplete Level 2 Directive which the European Commission will not publish before summer 2015. The final form of this will affect the rules to be made by national regulators, but the shortage of time to full implementation in January 2017 necessitates action now with our firms on the basis of the draft legal texts available.

Liz Field, CEO of the Wealth Management Association commented:

“We currently have a number of policy experts carefully analysing the issues in MiFID II that we feel are most significant to the WMA community. We will be combining this analysis with feedback from numerous discussions with our member firms, and discussing our thoughts with the FCA, including suggestions on how to implement the directive in order to best serve the wealth management community and, ultimately, the retail investor.

“The WMA will be responding to the FCA’s Discussion Paper before the deadline on 26th May.”

– Ends –

Notes for Editors

About the Wealth Management Association (WMA) 

  • The Wealth Management Association (WMA) is a trade association representing 186 Wealth Management firms and Associate members
  • 110 full members are wealth management and stockbroking firms that deal directly for over 4 million retail investors.
  • They deal in stocks and shares and other financial instruments for individuals, trusts and charities through a range of services spanning execution only, advisory and discretionary fund management.
  • 76 associate member firms provide professional services to our full member firms.
  • WMA’s aim is to ensure that business, regulatory, tax and other relevant changes across Europe are appropriate and proportionate for the investment community and their clients.
  • The WMA exists to support its members and their clients in the following ways:
    • To be an advocate for the sector with governments, regulators and the wider financial services community;
    • To influence policy and also decision makers within the wider sector to the benefit of WMA members and their clients;
    • To research and provide definitive information about the sector as required for members and in support of the influencing and advocacy objectives;
    • To be a thought leader, to lead and stimulate debate and make members aware of emerging trends; challenging and provoking change.
    • Facilitating the sharing of good practice, enabling the membership as a whole to benefit from the latest developments affecting the sector as well as providing support to enable them to develop good prescribe and overcome challenges.
  • Our member firms manage in excess of £670 billion of wealth in the UK, Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
  • The firms operate across more than 580 sites, employing over 32 000 staff.
  • The firms also run over 5.5 million client portfolios and carry out over 20 million trades a year.

Contact
If you would like further information on this release or other press matters please contact:

www.thewma.co.uk

Switchboard: 020 7448 7100

T: @WMA_UK