A staggering 82 percent of North American asset managers plan to fully unbundle all of their brokers globally, despite many not expecting the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II to directly affect them, according to an ITG survey.
MiFID II, which is scheduled to come into force in Europe on 3 January 2018, applies to asset managers with operations in the EU, but the directive could also affect those that have sub-advisory agreements with EU investment managers, or that sell and manage European UCITS funds.
MiFID II will not directly affect 43 percent of North American asset managers, said ITG’s survey of 100 buy-side professionals.
The directive requires asset managers to explicitly separate their trading commissions from investment research payments, prompting 82 percent of survey respondents to say they would unbundle their broker relationships globally, despite many not expecting a direct MiFID II impact on their businesses.
Some 59 percent of respondents said they plan to continue paying for research using commission sharing arrangements.
Commenting on the survey findings, ITG’s head of global commission management, Jack Pollina, said: “MiFID II is going to have a significant impact well beyond the shores of Europe, as institutional investors require asset managers to change the way they budget, fund, price and pay for research. North American firms are anticipating these changes and are taking steps now to adapt to the shifting expectations of their end investors.”
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