As discussed in my edition of Harrington Starr’s Tech Tuesdays, the feeding frenzy for vendors providing MiFID II solutions will continue well into 2018 given that hundreds of financial firms are on track to miss the January deadline.

We are well past the point where firms would be able to implement, test and go live with MiFID II solutions so the question is what will happen? As opposed to will anything happen?

The recent £49.3m Merrill Lynch fine from the FCA for a breach of EMIR reporting goes to show how serious the regulators are but the commonly held view is that firms that can offer up details on their plan and timescales to comply with MiFID II, will probably escape relatively unscathed.

It is those that are unable to give a coherent answer on how they plan to comply and when that will be who are in the crosshairs of the regulators.

What this does mean, however, is that the market for compliance products will remain hot for a long time yet, and that’s even before we consider the prospect of a MiFID III!

This market space had been great for sales people and recruitment alike and there have been some huge success stories from the start-up scene that were born from the opportunities created by MiFID II.