More than half of UK financial institutions ready for Mifid, says research

More than half the UK’s biggest financial institutions say they are ready for the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid), even though some of the technical details have not yet been finalised.

A survey of 15 of the top 20 financial services organisations by analyst Datamonitor, shows that 53 per cent of firms are ready for the directive, which will come into force in November 2007.

To tackle the growing amount of regulation, 80 per cent of institutions will increase staff compliance training, and all plan to increase technology investment.

With the government launching initiatives such as the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Computing, 6 April) to crack down on international financial crime, banks also need to improve staff training to tackle money laundering, says David Harrison, chief executive of Intuition, the elearning company that commissioned the research.

Some 60 per cent of financial institutions believe money laundering will be a major compliance training issue for 2006.

The research also shows that 33 per cent of organisations need to do more to educate board-level executives about risk management and corporate accountability, as they are directly responsible under Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.