Representatives of the EU's 28 governments and European members of parliament struck the deal on the outlines of the so-called Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or Mifid, in a late-night session in Strasbourg.
Earlier this month the European Parliament approved MiFID 2, an even more ambitious law, which aims to change how trillions of euros-worth of stocks and bonds, derivatives and commodities are traded, cleared and reported.
Restricting the right to open an account to large carbon emitters which have to have them for compliance purposes and financial companies regulated through Europe's Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) would be a promising way to cut theft, fraud and money laundering all at once, says Trevor Sikorski of Barclays Capital.
Turquoise will take advantage of Mifid to create a multi-trading facility (MTF).
At the moment there is too little sign of either.Next to the éclat of Big Bang, MiFID is more of a Long Moan.
Under MiFID 2, if trading in a particular share in dark pools exceeds certain caps, the pools will be barred from handling it for six months (although the darkness makes it hard to know when caps are hit).
The West's supremacy in financial markets will further decline as new trading regulations - the Volcker Rule in the U.S. and MiFID in Europe - create a surge of regulatory arbitrage favoring more lightly regulated geographies such as Russia and China.
The biggest changes could come from a directive known as MiFID, which takes effect from November 2007 and which will bring an end to monopolies in share trading.
If this weren't as tangled a picture as you could imagine, up pops a distinctly European thing: a directive the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
But he adds, "Practically, it's a very big headache .The MiFID cuckooFinancial-industry lobbying groups voice concerns about the costs of complying.
