Financial Times: Banks and brokers suffer ‘dramatic’ fall in commissions

02 June 2018

Investment banks and brokers across Europe have suffered a “dramatic” fall in the fees asset managers pay them to buy and sell shares in a sign of how the recently introduced Mifid II rules have shaken up markets.

The ITG research showed the fall in commission was consistently high across all European countries examined, while globally there was a much smaller fall. Mick McAteer, co-director at the non-profit Financial Inclusion Centre, said the data were “encouraging”. “But it will only be good news if the fall in commissions is passed on to the end investor through lower management charges,” he said. Some fund managers and brokers predict commissions could rise in future — in particular for executing trades in less liquid stocks. A senior figure at a large wealth manager warned that Mifid II could also have unintended consequences and hit returns. He suggested that the quality of research provided by banks and brokers had been affected by the requirement to unbundle research from trading costs, arguing this would not be beneficial for investors.

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