28 May 2018

Bloomberg: Nordea says MiFID II to exacerbate slump in analyst coverage

Nordea Bank AB says the firms affected by the development should consider commissioning their own research to help “alleviate the risk of falling off investors’ radar screens entirely.”

There are only about half as many equity analysts covering publicly traded European small and medium-sized firms now as there were before the 2008 financial crisis, Nordea estimates in a report published on Monday. The smallest firms -- those with market values of no more than 400 million euros -- have less than one analyst covering them, on average.

Revisions to Europe’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or MiFID II, were introduced in January to improve transparency. Part of the overhaul included requiring brokers to unbundle their services, in other words, investors are now charged separately for having their trades executed and for research.

Turnover in Europe’s equity markets is roughly the same as it was before the global financial crisis. But liquidity, expressed as turnover as a percentage of market capitalization, has dropped to 65 percent from 95 percent before 2008, Nordea said.

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