This is the year of the market in financial instruments directive and 1,500 invitations to attend conferences on the subject have arrived. When conference organisers pile into a subject with such intensity, it is undoubtedly an issue of importance.

Mifid replaces the investment services directive of the 1990s, which was designed to reduce barriers to financial cross-border trade in the European Union. It did not live up to its promise and the rules and requirements companies had to follow added cost and complexity to cross-border business. By 1998, EU governments gave the European Commission the responsibility to deliver a single market in financial services. The Financial Services Action Plan was born with its 42 measures and the "big daddy" framework directive of all is Mifid.