On Thursday, 5 November, more than 60 delegates from various institutions and organisations in the fields of supervision, banks, consulting and academia attended the third MiFID Congress in Stuttgart. Since 1 November 2007 the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive – also known by its abbreviated name of MiFID – has been transposed into German law. How banks, stock exchanges and the authorities have since dealt with the financial markets directive in practice in both Germany and Europe was the subject of a number of talks by distinguished MiFID experts. They included Dr Günter Birnbaum (Executive Director, Securities Supervision, at the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin)), Michael Fridrich (Unit G3 - Securities Markets - of the European Commission), Professor Dr Peter Gomber (holds the Chair of Business Administration at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Frankfurt am Main), and Michael Kieß (Senior Project Manager and MiFID expert at Boerse Stuttgart).
The aims of the MiFID are to harmonise European financial markets, strengthen competition and further improve transparency and investor protection in securities trading. In his talk on best execution policies of German securities trading firms Dr Günter Birnbaum emphasised that the transposition of the MiFiD requires strict compliance in an organisation. He pointed out that this has become particularly apparent during the financial crisis. It concerns product control, for instance, or the monitoring of sales by keeping a record of the advice given to customers,“ continued Dr Birnbaum.
In his talk Michael Fridrich discussed the transposition of the MiFID in Germany (questions and answers), commenting that the MiFID has generally been well successfully implemented in the Member States. "In the first two years that it has been in force the MiFID has had positive effects on European securities markets. New pan-European trading places have been created and competition among them has resulted in lower trading fees, more innovation and better service," he said.
Professor Peter Gomber, on the other hand, argued that the MiFID, has not yet benefited the private investor, even now, two years after being implemented in national law. "This is clearly shown by a certain lack of substance of the best execution policies,” claimed Professor Gomber in his presentation on “Best Execution Policies of German securities trading firms".
With the third MiFID Congress, Boerse Stuttgart has made a further contribution to increasing the transparency of securities transactions, in the interests of customers and investors. "The stock exchange would welcome if national legislators were to create a balance between strictly regulated public stock exchanges and OTC platforms," said Dr Rolf Deml, Managing Director at Baden-Wuerttembergische Wertpapierboerse.