Progress with MiFID as First Working Group Held

The MiFID – Markets in Financial Instruments Directive – Joint Working Group efforts (Reference Data Review, April 2005) were kicked off earlier this month with the first meeting being held in London, and tasks being assigned to participants. The forward-looking objectives of the group, according to the group’s chairman Chris Pickles, are four-fold. They are, focusing on best practice recommendations for best execution (spearheaded by ISITC-Europe), real-time market data (SIIA/FISD), reference data standards around business entity identifiers and unique instrument identifiers (RDUG), and defining a standard protocol for communicating information (Fix Protocol). The next full working group meeting is set for mid-June.