The European Commission released on April 7 draft rules tounbundle research and trading fees that asset managers charge customers,Reuters reported the same day.
Research, historically seen as "free," iscurrently bundled with trading fees charged to asset managers by investmentfirms. Asset managers in turn pass such fees on to customers.
The commission also proposed some flexibility in how fundsare collected and managed.
The proposed rules, however, did not clarify if they wouldallow existing commission sharing agreements to continue in countries such asBritain, Germany and France. Under such an agreement, a broker executing atrade agrees that some of the commission is paid to third-party researchcompanies nominated by a fund manager.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament approved the EC'sproposal to delay bya year to 2018 the implementation of the revised Markets in FinancialInstruments Directive, or MiFID II, Bloomberg News reported.