SAS, the leader in business intelligence (BI) software, is now offering a complete solution for financial institutions that must comply with the new Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) regulations as they transpose into national law starting January 2007. The deadline for firms to meet MiFID requirements is 1 November 2007.
The objective of MiFID is to increase consumer protection, introduce further safeguards for investors and allow trading firms to operate across the European Union under the standardised rules of their local regulators.
To comply with MiFID, organisations will have to manage their businesses much more tightly, with a level of information retention and integration far exceeding current general practices.
"Clearly these new legal requirements will impact a number of key business processes," said Peyman Mestchian, Head of Risk Intelligence Practice for SAS EMEA. "From an IT perspective, financial institutions will need to re-evaluate their data management and storage capabilities, update their trade execution platforms and connectivity, and implement an integrated intelligence platform to ensure compliance, improve governance and deliver new levels of trading competitiveness."
According to the BI vendor, weak data integration capabilities pose the single most important technology barrier to successful compliance of MiFID. Especially organisations using a multiple vendor approach to reporting MiFID will face serious challenges in integrating multiple technologies, which will slow down implementation and increase costs.
According to Andr'e Zitzke, solutions specialist at SAS South Africa, the company currently offers specific banking solutions and an enterprise intelligence platform which enable firms to meet requirements for client classification, trade transparency, and aggregate information to support execution and client reporting.
"MiFID is a good opportunity for financial institutions to take advantage of the commonality of the more than 40 EU directives that need to be implemented by 2010. Standardising on a single enterprise reporting architecture offers a 'single version of the truth'," stated Mestchian as he explains a key benefit of his company's platform.
Other functional areas impacted by MiFID such as know-your-customer (KYC), behavioural analysis, operational risk management, anti-money laundering, anti-fraud and abuse measures, and compliance reporting are addressed within the company's overall performance management environment.
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