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They’re in early talks to coordinate efforts to lobby both local watchdog BaFin and the European Securities and Markets Authority, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified before the process starts.
The industry already sounds fed up with the new regulations. “Practice shows they are too unwieldy and such a high level of consumer protection isn’t actually required,” said Dirk Wehmhoener, co-head of Berenberg Bank’s German wealth-management business.
Germany has been especially hard-hit given many individual investors there still place orders by phone.
“You’d think this would just push many people to online brokerages, but the German Mittelstand entrepreneurs we cater to place a lot of value on the personal touch,” said Thomas Nicht, who deals with MiFID II at the National Association of German Cooperative Banks. The Mittelstand is the mass of small- and medium-sized companies that make up the backbone of the economy.