MiFID Joint Working Group Wins 4TH Annual Dream Team Award - Annual Awards Recognizing Spectacular Performance In Automating Processes

MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive Joint Working Group) won the Best Teamwork Award at Operations Management's magazine's 4th annual Dream Team Awards ceremony held in New York. Dream Team Awards are presented to firms and industry players that have developed solutions to pressing operations issues. Nominees were announced July 4 and the winners were chosen based on input from readers and the editorial staff.

Best Teamwork Award: MiFID Joint Working Group,

Tom Davin, VP and Managing Director of SIIA/FISD; Chris Pickles, chair of the MIFID Joint Working Group and co-chair of the FIX Protocol Global Education and Marketing Committee (and member of the Executive Committee of FISD); Barry Marshall, co-chair of the FIX Protocol Europe Governance Committee; Stuart McKinlay, chairman of ISITC Europe; Anthony Kirby, founder of RDUG.

New regulatory requirements in all markets continue to keep market participants and their operational departments busy and this year the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive is the main concern. Despite uncertainty about how the directive will affect operations and business processing, the four industry groups gathered to create a dedicated working group to hash out the details to prepare the market for the undertaking, which will require investment firms, exchanges, trading platforms and data vendors to make fundamental changes to operations and business processes. The aim is to prepare the market for the effects of MiFID so that firms have time to make the appropriate changes required for compliance in 2007.

MiFID was adopted last year with the intention of improving market transparency and achieve best execution among investors trading on and off exchanges. The European Commission and Committee of European Securities Regulators are consulting with the market to establish the best interpretation of what MiFID will mean and which standards the market requires to function well. The MiFID Joint Working Group has created smaller committees to cover specific areas, such as best execution and technology, and has already proposed some changes to the EU Commission based on the consultation completed by the working group.

Other Award Nominees:

• Deutsche Börse Group, Matthias Ganz, chief operating officer, and Euroclear Bank, Yves Poullet, managing director and head of operations and network management division
• Clearstream, Saheed Awan, head of securities financing services, and The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier
• State Street, Alan Greene, executive VP of investment services, and Charles River Development, Tom Driscoll, VP of sales and marketing