MiFID II forces asset managers to cull research providers

Candriam using 30% fewer brokers

European asset managers are cutting the number of research providers they use in response to MiFID II rules, which require both the buy side and the sell side to reassess how research is valued and obtained.

MiFID II, which came into force in January 2018, forces brokers to charge separately for the research they provide, reversing the previous system whereby free research was provided by banks and large brokers in exchange for investors' business elsewhere. The research acquisition rules have caused a price war in the cost of research, with concerns raised that larger brokers could price research at negligible levels, thereby pricing smaller research providers out of the market. Candriam, with €112bn AUM, is among the managers reducing the number of providers it selects as a result of th...