Who killed MiFID?

What is MiFID? A woman behind a laptop, holding a cup of coffee, is looking into her screen on the leaflet I hold in my hands. I just opened a thick envelope from my bank and along with the leaflet I found a letter and a booklet with new general conditions that my bank will apply to me a a client as of 1 November 2007. The type of booklet no one ever reads.

What is MiFID? I don´t have the faintest idea but this leaflet will surely give me the answer. As some sort of a pay off to the big question, it raises a second question: ´what MiFID means to you´. So this has an impact to me personally? Even more curious I start reading the leaflet. But only to be disappointed when I finish reading.

I now know that MiFID stands for Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, and that it is a European directive that comes into effect as of 1 November. According to the leaflet the directive will have significant impact to local law. Under the heading ´Ken uw klant´ (Know your customer) it is explained that in order for my bank to service me in the best way, they need to know everything about my financial situation. If I won´t cooperate in giving this information, my bank will not provide me with certain services anymore.

Furthermore, although I have not provided any information yet, the leaflet already tells me that I am probably a nonprofessional trader. What´s new here?

The leaflet concludes with a summary
1. My bank may ask me for additional information
2. My bank will send me more information

What a waste of time to read through this leaflet. What a loss of money in terms of designing, writing, printing and posting these leaflets to millions of customers like me. And what a missed opportunity to finally demonstrate the value of EU directives and legislation. Because after a bit of Googling I found out that MiFID is actually all about consumer rights and protection in relation to financial products and services.

Richard