The name may be unfamiliar-and comical-to most, but the first Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) revolutionised share-trading in the European Union, by allowing new competitors to take on dear and dozy national stock exchanges. Earlier this month the European Parliament approved MiFID 2, an even more ambitious law, which aims to change how trillions of euros-worth of stocks and bonds, derivatives and commodities are traded, cleared and reported. The consequences are likely to be as sweeping and unpredictable as those of its predecessor.
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