This intensive seminar offers a practical understanding of the directive’s impact on business & on the wider asset management industry, & provides a roadmap for compliance with new operational requirements, together with the conceptual & practical tools to set up the processes to achieve & demonstrate best execution.

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) will replace and extend the scope of the Investment Services Directive on 1 November 2007. Described as a "bigger bang" for European capital markets, MiFID will revolutionise trading by opening execution services to full competition, create new level playing fields for investment service providers holding EU financial service passports, and impose extensive new organisational and business conduct requirements upon firms dealing with securities.

MiFID sweeps away the very concept of central exchanges and order concentration obligations as they currently exist in several European countries. It introduces a passportable operating framework for execution services that can be provided by regulated exchanges or multilateral trading facilities, or internalised inside the financial institution itself. In the long-term, this will result in the complete desegregation of the existing value chain related to execution services. While providing the opportunity for improving the efficiency of trading across a whole range of instruments, fragmentation poses threats to the quality of services provided to clients and the financial market structure itself.

For investment firms and market operators, liberalisation of the execution landscape is balanced by a series of obligations on pre- and post-trade transparency, order internalisation, and transaction reporting that aim to protect clients and maintain the integrity, efficiency and fairness of markets. Central to investor protection is the "Best Execution" provision of MiFID whereby investment firms are required to have taken all reasonable steps to obtain the best possible result for the client.

While "Best Execution" should be at the core of the MiFID strategy of every investment firm conducting business in Europe, the notion remains complex and ambiguous, making effective implementation and compliance highly challenging.

Designed and delivered by two MiFID specialists with demonstrated expertise in transaction cost analysis and best execution models, this intensive seminar gives participants a practical understanding of the directive’s impact on their business and on the wider asset management industry, provides them with a roadmap for compliance with new operational requirements and equips them with the indispensable conceptual and practical tools to set up the processes to achieve and demonstrate best execution.

Providing research insights into the newly introduced Directive and its implications for all aspects of the execution process, the seminar allows participants to go beyond MiFID compliance and embrace best execution as a competitive advantage in the new pan-European financial markets. As such it should appeal to all buy- and sell-side professionals involved in the design, implementation or control of execution processes in securities and other financial instruments.

Content:

View the full programme

This intensive two-day seminar builds upon the latest results of the best execution and operational risks research programme conducted by EDHEC and includes two case study presentations by key industry players in the field of execution operations.

The seminar addresses questions such as:

• What are the objectives and the key provisions of MiFID?

• What is the impact of MiFID on buy- and sell-side institutions?

• How will MiFID transform the European execution landscape?

• How to comply with the operational requirements of MiFID?

• What should the practitioner know about market structure analysis?

• What models can be used to measure quality of execution?

• How to analyse and measure transaction costs?

• How to estimate market impact and timing risk before order submission?

• What order submission strategies can be used to optimise execution?

• How to use algorithmic trading for best execution?

Seminar Leaders:

Jean-René Giraud is the Director of Development of the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre and the head of the "MiFID and Best Execution" Research Chair supported by Caceis, Euronext, and Sungard.

Jean-René Giraud is in charge of developing the relationship between EDHEC and key industry players. Before joining EDHEC, he was Managing Principal at Capco (London) with responsibility for buy-side advisory services. Previously, Jean-René was a Senior Project Manager with Barclays Capital designing and implementing transaction systems, and prior to that Head of Consulting at SIP Software.

As a Research Associate with EDHEC, Jean-René Giraud heads the "Best Execution and Operational Performance" programme and specialises on hedge fund operational risks and best execution. His work has appeared in refereed journals such as the Journal of Alternative Investments, and the Journal of Asset Management.

He has authored a large number of articles in industry publications, contributed to "Operational Risk, Practical Approaches to Implementation" and co-authored the noted "MiFID: Convergence towards a Unified European Capital Markets Industry" (Risk Books, 2006).

Jean-René Giraud is a frequent speaker at major industry conferences on various topics related to operations and risk issues. He holds a Master's in Information Technology from the School of Engineering at the University of Nice-Sophia-Antipolis.

Catherine D'Hondt is an Associate Professor of Finance at EDHEC Business School. Dr D'Hondt teaches various graduate courses on capital markets and her primary research area is market microstructure, with a specific focus on traders' behaviour and order submission strategies.

Within the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre, Catherine D'Hondt contributes to the "Best Execution and Operational Performance" programme. She conducts work on the long-term implications of MiFID for European capital markets and develops expertise in transaction cost analysis and trading performance measurement.

Her doctoral dissertation received the Euronext – French Finance Association award in 2003 and her research in the area of market microstructure and transaction cost analysis has been presented at major academic and practitioner conferences and published in refereed journals such as the Review of Finance, the Journal of Asset Management and Finance Letters.

With Jean-René Giraud, she has co-authored the reference text on MiFID: "MiFID: Convergence towards a Unified European Capital Markets Industry" (Risk Books, 2006) and an influential position paper: "MiFID: the (in)famous European Directive?" (EDHEC, 2007).

Catherine D'Hondt holds a Doctorate in Management Sciences from the Catholic University of Mons and the University of Perpignan.

CFA Institute Professional Development (PD) Program:

EDHEC Asset Management Education is registered with CFA Institute as an Approved Provider of professional development programs. This program is eligible for 14 PD credit hours, inclusive of 10 Standards, Ethics, and Regulatory (SER) credit hours, as granted by CFA Institute.

Registration:

• Attendance fees for the seminar amount to €3,500 / £2,500 + VAT where applicable.
• Fees include documentation, refreshments, lunch and drinks.

Three easy ways to register:

• By e-mail: AMeducation@edhec-risk.com
• Online: http://store.edhec-risk.com
• By phone: Mélanie Ruiz: +33 (0) 493 187 819 or +33 (0) 676 083 844

Venue:

The Dorchester Hotel, London

Media Partner:

IPE (Investment & Pensions Europe) is the pioneering institutional asset management magazine written for Europe’s leading pension funds and institutional investors. It is THE source of information on the fast growing European investment and pensions markets. For further information, please call Eric Davis on +44 (0)20 7261 4607 or visit www.IPE.com - the free access internet site for Europe’s pensions industry. Register free for the daily email news alert!