The project, called MiFID Connect, was launched in November with support from just four organizations, but another seven joined in the months since then as the scope and scale of MiFID's impact on financial markets has become better understood. All financial firms operating in the U.K., including futures commission merchants, investment banks and commodity dealers will be affected by MiFID, even if their headquarters are outside the 30 European countries that will be implementing the directive. The trade associations involved in the MiFID Connect project now represent nearly the full scope of affected market participants, including asset managers, investment banks, commodity dealers, insurance companies, brokerage houses, and building societies.

The group is expected to issue a "survival guide" in July recommending a strategy and plan for managing the implementation. At least two educational events are planned for this fall, with the timing depending in part on the publication of guidance from the U.K.'s Financial Services Authority. Clifford Chance has been appointed as lawyers to the project, and the British Bankers Association is acting as the project's secretariat. The supporting organizations also have established a subgroup of IT specialists from member firms to consider the consequences of MiFID for technology and operations.

One of MiFID Connect's main tasks is to develop guidance in 10 areas where the MiFID requirements are ambiguous or carry a high degree of legal uncertainty. Clifford Chance already has produced draft guidance in four areas: best execution, appropriateness, suitability and conflicts of interest management. These have been circulated to member firms for review, and MiFID Connect is working with the Financial Services Authority to make sure that the guidance will be consistent with regulatory expectations. The law firm is currently working on draft guidance in two other areas, customer classifications and transaction reporting, and the remainder will be completed no later than January 31. That is the start of the nine-month period that the European Commission has set for compliance with the MiFID directive.

"By requiring firms to implement the new MiFID requirements by Nov. 1 2007, the Commission has set a very ambitious timetable," Belchambers said. "That, taken together with the fact that these new requirements will generate significant changes in firm's internal procedures, customer documents, and IT systems, emphasizes the importance for the industry to establish a strong ‘stamp' on implementation policy and process. Our goal is to ensure that the implementation is practical, market-sensitive and sustainable."

The members of MiFID Connect include: The Association of British Insurers, the Association of Foreign Bankers, the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers, the Bond Market Association, British Bankers' Association, the Building Societies Association, the Futures and Options Association, the International Capital Market Association, the Investment Management Association, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the London Investment Banking Association.—Will Acworth, editor of Futures Industry

Alan Jenkins, based in London, is BearingPoint’s European Head of MiFID, and chairs the Cross Jurisdiction sub group of the MiFID Joint Working Group.