The directive aims to set a legal base in order to enhance coherence and transparency in the European financial market. MiFID will focus on the following four aspects:
- Market efficiency (regarding competitiveness and transparency in securities trading)
- Investor protection
- Harmonisation of business processes and rules
- Cooperation between the national regulatory authorities

Core tasks of data providers
Global data providers such as SIX Telekurs are not directly affected by MiFID. In other words, they are not required to meet any specific rules on the provision of financial information. However, that does not mean they can simply sit back and watch as the directive takes effect. On the contrary, a global data provider must evaluate the impact on various types of financial information and structure its data offering to meet the needs of customers and other market participants.
The impact on data management is already becoming apparent. For example, the new reporting requirements mean that reference data must be structured professionally and in compliance with MiFID, forcing financial firms and thus their global data providers to review their data strategy.