MiFID implementation costs may reach £1 billion

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive is likely to cost between £870m and £1 billion to implement in the UK with ongoing expenditure of about an extra £100m a year according to the FSA. The findings are based on the results of a survey of 41 firms which were scaled up to reflect the number of businesses affected by the Directive. The largest contributions reflect the introduction of the appropriateness tests for non-advised sales, new client classifications, best execution obligations and the systems work needed to satisfy the new pre- and post-trade transparency requirements.