MiFID II has wide reaching implications for European financial markets with some global spillover effects.

Within AMIC, we have explored the implications that research unbundling will have on both asset managers and end investors – with a focus on fixed income research, which often gets overlooked due its larger equities counterpart.

MiFID II/R and the bond markets: the second year - An analysis of the impacts of MiFID II/R implementation in 2019, its challenges and potential solutions - December 2019
MiFID II/R and the bond markets: the first year - An analysis of the impacts and challenges of MiFID II/R implementation since January 2018 - December 2018
AMIC briefing on ESMA research unbundling Q&A (July 2018)
MiFID II implementation: research unbundling - October 2017

Research Unbundling – Summary of surveys (Members only)

See also: MiFID II/R implementation (covering primary markets, secondary markets, repo markets and asset management).




ICMA AMIC survey on FICC research unbundling 2018

23 November 2018 ICMA’s Asset Management and Investors Council (AMIC) today issued the results of the second AMIC FICC Research Unbundling survey. The purpose of the survey is to help improve market clarity on this topic, identify remaining challenges, difficulties and outstanding issues in the implementation of the new MiFID II research rules and to establish progress compared to the first survey issued in 2017. This survey was aimed at buy-side firms and focused on FICC research only.

The results show that 79% of firms who responded pay for FICC Research from their P&L, up from 67% last year. On SME research, 43% of respondents noticed a decrease in availability and breadth of research, a trend which we expect will continue. Respondents’ approach to tackling the conflicting rules around FICC research globally seems to be equally split between unbundling research fees globally (35%) and segregating the EU and non-EU businesses (35%) - a stark change from last year when 64% of firms were planning to unbundle globally and only 7% were planning to segregate their businesses.  

We hope that the our members and the market find the results helpful and informative. Please let us know if you have any feedback or would like to discuss these results.



ICMA AMIC survey on FICC research unbundling 2017

8 November 2017 ICMA’s Asset Management and Investors Council (AMIC) today issued a survey it conducted on the intentions of investors with regard to the unbundling of FICC research as a result of the new rules coming from MiFID II. The survey was conducted in the last two weeks of October 2017 among AMIC members and is presented now in an anonymised format.

The results show that a clear majority of firms expect to be compliant by the MiFID II implementation deadline of 3 January 2018, but only half of respondents have received guidance from their national regulator with regard to the rules. 67% of firms intend to pay for research from P&L, only 4% intend to use a research payment account (RPA), but 17% had not decided.

A majority of respondents will increase spend on FICC research, but reduce the number of providers. Independent research providers (IRPs) are set to see more demand for their products and services.

Finally, a majority of firms (61%) said they plan to unbundle their research consumption globally, showing the growing international effect these European rules will have.

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