Clearing the Holiday Outbox

Indeed, out of the thousands of pages of regulation released by the regulator over the past week or two, the most important is, of course, the technical advice and consultation for the review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid II).

Like most financial-market observers, I was quietly hoping that there might be a slight delay in the release, even up to the 11th hour. Indeed, I was at Christmas drinks for one particular financial institution the night before, talking to one of their press officers, and I expressed this vague, futile hope, only to be met with a shallow laugh and a look of resignation.

"We're hearing it's definitely tomorrow," they said, and everyone around us went still and quiet for a moment, thinking about the prospect of 1,500 pages (1,611 in the end) of regulation and directive to read over the Christmas break.

Pity the poor post-trade folks as well, who have to deal with the Central Securities Depository rules releases (400 pages), or Esma's work on indices and exchanges, which is a much slimmer, but still important document.

Actually, pity the poor folks who have to write all of this stuff. It's fun to moan about having to read it over the holiday, but pulling all that together in six months must have been a Herculean effort.

I'm still digesting the documents, as I'm sure you are, but there will be a raft of analysis come January on the website.

End-of-Year
It's been an eventful year, for sure. You might notice that between now and the intervening demilitarized zone that keeps Christmas and the New Year apart, we'll have a series of articles going up that highlight the best coverage of the year on WatersTechnology.com.

These stretch from our awards, through to compliance and regulation, risk management, cover stories and more.

From all of us here at Sell-Side Technology, and both Waters and WatersTechnology.com, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year, and say thank you for continuing to support the magazine.

This column and newsletter will resume publishing on Monday January 5, 2015.