I'm going to revisit a previous post - Do we Need a Solution for Email Compliancy, where I said that you should understand what your business needs to do about retaining data and not be pushed by industry trends or the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) that vendors create (thanks and credit to James H due here!)
I've been seeing a fair bit of noise about MiFID recently and delved into what it's all about. Simply, MiFID stands for the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive - Europe trying to update the regulations around investment banks, market data companies, trading platforms and exchanges that haven't worked very well to date.
The MiFID directive allows companies to provide services across borders and establish branches in other European states. It also makes share trading easier and removes the need to use traditional exchanges.
Why the worry though? well, businesses will have to be able to prove 'best execution' on the deals they perform. The will be accountable for best price, venue, cost and speed... and they will have to keep records for five years. Providing a clear audit trail is going to be important here. Finding the right information and making it available is just as important as collecting it and retention.
So this means that new processes and systems are needed to deal with this. Systems to calculate the 'best execution' of a deal are one thing, but each deal, trade adn transfer will have communications, decisions and reasons behind it. Email is typically the system used for these sort of communication currently, while corporate IM will catchup fast if the auditory systems can be put in place. All big bucks no doubt. Given that this industry trades trillions of pounds/dollars/euros a day, you can expect the big vendor marketing departments to be working awat, and lawyers preparing their cases for the fall out when the first test cases come along!
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