About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Buy-Side Waking Up To MiFID II Impact On Research Fees, Says Fidessa Executive

Subscribe to our newsletter

In recent weeks, the understanding of how to implement the rules for commission payments set in Europe’s MiFID II regulation has changed, according to David Pearson, head of post-trade strategy at trading platform provider Fidessa.

“The understanding now is that a broker must be paid for services they provide to clients, whatever those services are,” Pearson said. “That also includes research. The buy-side is obligated to make sure it has a process and understands what research it needs — and the value of that research.

“[The regulation] completely changes the landscape of how existing brokers offer their research at a bundled rate, and [buy-side firms] get everything the firm actually issues,” he added. “The process of how research is procured is going to fundamentally change as a result of understanding the inducement which goes hand in hand with this particular space.”

Fidessa has partnered with commission management software provider Commcise to offer the capability to manage payment of fees for research in the manner required under MiFID II once it takes effect in January 2018.

Together, Fidessa and Commcise have taken an algorithmic approach to handling research fee payments, as Amrish Ganatra, managing director and co-founder of Commcise, explained.

“On a trade-by-trade basis, the allocations or accounts that feature part of the trade help determine exactly how much research commission to add on a given trade,” he said. “We make that decision based on looking at the budget for every given allocation within that trade. … We give the buy side the tools to determine what this extra research charge is on a trade-by-trade basis.”

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: Best Practices for Managing Trade Surveillance

1 July 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes The surge in trading volumes combined with the emergence of new digital financial assets and geopolitical events have added layers of complexity to market activities. Traditional surveillance methods often struggle to keep pace with these changes, leading to difficulties in detecting...

BLOG

Modern Data Landscape Comes Under Scrutiny at Data Management Summit London

From data products and marketplaces to the new challenges of regulatory compliance and the latest thinking on unstructured data, A-Team Group’s Data Management Summit London 2025 took in the full breadth of topics that chief data officers and their teams are dealing with daily. With a line up of C-suite executives and expert speakers from...

EVENT

TradingTech Summit London

Now in its 14th year the TradingTech Summit London brings together the European trading technology capital markets industry and examines the latest changes and innovations in trading technology and explores how technology is being deployed to create an edge in sell side and buy side capital markets financial institutions.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...