A consortium of technology vendors, led by Sun Microsystems and Avitis, are forming a pan-European alliance that aims to help financial services firms comply with the European Union's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) which comes into force in November.
The Open MiFID Alliance includes Mobius Management Systems, edge IPK, Ullink and Gissing Software.
The group says each alliance member has a different areas of expertise and it can collectively offer an integrated service for firms that reduces risk and deployment time. While Sun can provide underlying technology for a MiFID implementation Avitis can deliver system integration services, says the group. Gissing Software can help firms to deal with the pre- and post-trade transparency requirements of MiFID, while Ullink can help with best execution, Mobius with record keeping and edge IPK with client classification.
Commenting on the alliance, Philip Filleul, MiFID programme manager, Sun Microsystems, says: "While we recognise that firms may not take all parts of the alliance's offering there is benefit from taking more of the offer due to the known interoperability between the solutions with pre-worked integration points which will result in rapid deployment times, lower risk and a better return on investment."
Research released last month found that 60% of European financial institutions are not expected to meet the November 2007 deadline for MiFID. The study, which was conducted by BPM firm HandySoft Global Corporation, found that UK-based financial institutions are in a more advanced state of preparation than the EU average, but nearly a third (27%) are still unlikely to comply in time.
Furthermore, according to a Reuters report the European Commission could take legal action against countries that fail to introduce MiFID rules into national law on time.
The report, which cites data provided by an EU executive, shows that only three of the 27 EU countries - UK, Ireland and Romania - met the 31st January deadline for transposing MiFID into national law.
Infringement proceedings are expected be launched against countries that have not transposed MiFID in the next few weeks, says the report, although there is some uncertainty about when the cut-off point would be for determining which countries faced legal action as some EU members are due to transpose the rules in April or May.