Many financial participants have been so busy with MIFID II that they haven’t understood the impact of the EU Benchmark Regulation, or “EU BMR”, which came into effect on 1st January 2018, and will prohibit EU entities from using an unregulated benchmark in the EU from 1st January 2020.   Who does this impact? Unlike most recent regulations or principles around benchmarks, EU BMR also regulates contributors and users of benchmarks and indices in addition to Administrators such as Thomson Reuters. This means that a large number of market participants need to understand the level of exposure they have to this

A topic widely discussed in the European fund industry is actively managed funds that seem simply to follow an index without adding value for investors, while the management company charges fees for active management—so-called closet trackers. For me it is clear that active funds should add value to investors, either by reducing the risk attached to the market or by generating outperformance compared to their index. In this regard, I agree with the current investigations into these funds by the authorities of some European countries, since retail investors—especially—need protection. But the point I don’t agree with is how the activity