As well as enjoying the calm remains of the sunshine before the storm of the MiFID II regulatory debate returns in September, it’s time to sharpen up those pencils ready for a new term. Over the next few months the draft directive and regulation that have been with us for nigh on two years are expected (finally) to evolve to become the new reality. One particularly worrisome area still to be ironed out is the proposed narrowing of scope of the pre-trade transparency waivers. It is unclear whether the traditional broker business of ‘negotiating’ trades between clients is under threat here. And will market makers with accompanying pre-trade transparency obligations going about their business making markets (albeit off the order book) also get stung?

Some battles still to be won (or lost) it seems!