Close to 50 percent of investment managers and consultants believe client reporting is the greatest implementation challenge presented by the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), according to a Northern Trust survey.
The survey of more than 100 attendees at Northern Trust’s annual regulatory and depositary conference in November focused on the regulatory challenges faced by fund managers.
Around 20 percent of attendees said that transaction and transparency reporting would be also be a challenge.
A further 20 percent were concerned about inducements and research, and approximately 15 percent thought updating client documentation could be of concern.
In addition to concerns around MiFID II, the survey revealed that 65 percent of attendees expect the upcoming regulatory environment will demand an increasing amount of their time in 2018, compared to 2017.
Robert Angel, head of regulatory solutions at Northern Trust, said: “The level of focus on client reporting was no surprise to us. Whilst it’s surprising the effort spent by the industry on regulatory compliance is expected to increase, MiFID II will require ongoing efforts for the duration of 2018.”
He added: “In addition, [the] General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is fast approaching and with many fund managers focused on other regulatory change, the significance and work required for GDPR is likely to only being focused on now.”
