What has MiFID done for us?

If you like British comedy, you may remember that old John Cleese sketch about “What did the Romans do for us?”

OK, they gave us a legal system, the basis for our language, roads…but besides that, what did the Romans do for us?

So MiFID’s here – what’s MiFID done for us?

Well, NYSE has bought (not merged with) Euronext, so in one move it owns exchanges in New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon.

London Stock Exchange has bought (not merged with) Borsa Italiana, now owning the stock exchanges in the UK and Italy, a derivatives exchange and the MTS bond trading system.

Nasdaq is looking to take over OMX – there go the exchanges in the northern part of continental Europe.

Chi-X is here and is successful.  Boat is here.  Tradegate is here. EuroCCP has moved in.  Turquoise and Equiduct and Hi-mtf are on their way. 

But besides that – what has MiFID done for us?

It’s over 500 years since the first stock exchange was set up, and then all of these major changes happen in the same year.  Coincidence?

Yeah but, no but…

Back in 2003, when some of us started jumping up and down and waving our arms about saying “MiFID’s coming” (or “He’s behind you!”, for the pantomime fans), we said that MiFID would be the largest change in the European financial services market since 1993 when the ISD was introduced.

It’s only just gone Day 1 of MiFID

So – how big do the changes have to get before we start to notice “What has MiFID done for us?”