Monday June 27th 2016. It’s a date for the diary as it marks day one of the Wimbledon fortnight. A highlight of the sporting year, when England goes tennis mad for two weeks. I’ll be looking forward to seeing a packed Centre Court, with the potential for another Andy Murray championship win (or perhaps not given his recent form against Djokovic!). It’ll be doubly pleasing to see a potential end to (or at least reduction of) the vacant seats designated for corporate event tickets. This being a direct result of the finalisation of implementing measures for MiFID II this year. We’re already seeing fewer distributors at corporate events, with seats going to more staff from within various investment management firms.
Good news for sports fans with hopefully more focus being placed on the tennis and less on the steak and Rioja off-court.
With the goal of making a safer and more transparent financial system, with enhanced market clarity and investor protection; MiFID II will introduce a strong stance, impacting all investment firms. Rules are currently planned to come into effect from January 2017. We are already seeing a broad engagement of MiFID and MiFIR experts, supporting business change projects driven by the new regulations.
From a wealth management and sporting perspective, Aegon has been the lead sponsor of British tennis for more than five years. Offering just one example of where the regulations will have an impact, as the FCA is saying is that MiFID II is stricter than current guidelines and those offering tickets to corporate events will need to act carefully.
MiFID II will drive further change projects up to 2017 and beyond, and Highams Recruitment is already engaged in supporting our clients with the skills and expertise to meet MiFID II requirements. We look forward to widening this service, as the European Parliament’s economic affairs committee has now been told that implementation should be delayed until 2018, giving firms enough time to have the market infrastructure in place.
Going into 2016, I hope to see a great year of sport, some more bums on seats at the tennis, cricket and rugby; plus of course further opportunities for Highams to deliver the regulation change project experts the market requires.
Ross Taylor - Permanents Recruitment Consultant – Wealth Management
E: Ross.Taylor@Highams.com P: 01883 341144