A group of compliance and IT managers have said they believe once the UK leaves the EU, their organisation will be exempt from MiFID II.
One in four respondents in a poll of 250 professionals in the UK carried out by voice security services firm Aeriandi believe they will be exempt from MiFID II post-Brexit.
Of those, 70% work in large enterprises comprising of more than 100,000 employees. Aeriandi said the survey revealed awareness of the impacts of the UK’s decision to leave the EU is patchy, at best.
The survey also found 22% feel they understand MiFID II, but are not certain about how it applies to their organisation, while 14% said they have no idea how Brexit will affect their compliance requirements.
Tom Harwood, co-founder at Aeriandi, said firms must realise MiFID II is no longer a ‘distant dot on the horizon’ and it will have far-reaching implications for any firm dealing and processing financial instruments.
A separate study carried out by regulatory consultancy JWG Group found despite less than six months until the implementation of MiFID II, 90% of asset managers have said they are at risk of non-compliance.
Almost half of buy-side firms surveyed said they are attempting to implement MiFID II with a team of less than five people and a budget of less than £2 million.
Other financial institutions averaged MiFID II implementation team sizes of between 21 and 49 people, with just 15% of firms working with a budget of more than £10 million.
“Compliance and IT teams will need to work together and determine whether they have adequate systems in place to implement the required processes and procedures for MiFID II compliance,” Harwood concluded.