D-day for MiFID was more of a splutter than a big bang, and 2008 is when the real tech spend will take off.

The 1 November deadline for the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) compliance appeared to pass without a hitch. But, as Chris Pickles, chair of the MiFID joint working group, explains, there’s more to the regulations than a one-off enforcement date – MiFID isn’t a “Y2K do-or-die scenario,” and the regulation’s effects will take time to trickle through.

“A very small number of top-tier firms have gone out to address some of the opportunities MiFID presents,” he says. “But the vast majority of financial services firms have a long way to go if they’re going to come through the requirements as a viable business.”

Of the estimated £6.5bn to be spent on MiFID by financial institutions, Pickles predicts at least 20% will go on IT.

The good news, as ever, is that as firms look to comply and seize the new opportunities thrown up by MiFID, tech staff will be in big demand. Pickles also predicts business re-engineering professionals, change managers, consultants and software developers will all be needed.

“This is complex business process re-engineering. You’re basically talking about restructuring your business to continue to be competitive for the next 10 years.”

The contractor option

Simon Walker, director of IT recruiters Project Partners, says contractors with regulatory experience will be among those able to cash in: “Currently, it's very tough to get people with experience of MiFID, but anyone with experience of working on a project of regulatory IT change – Sarbanes Oxley, Basel II, for example ­– will find themselves very recruitable at the moment.”

According to Walker, a relatively junior position will pay £450 a day, while a project management position pulls in an average of £750 a day, which can rise to £900 at the larger institutions.

The vendor alternative

At some time in the not too distant future, MiFID’s ongoing implementation may also have implications for vendor hiring: Pickles predicts that a lot of financial services firms will use vendors for software development and systems integration.

What’s more, he reckons the hype surrounding an open equities market is merely scratching the surface of MiFID implications. As well as brokers and banks, there are 6,500 buyside firms in Europe who have to comply.

He says: “Trading venues will look towards high-speed processing and event-driven processing; derivatives and bonds markets will see the residual impact of MiFID in the autumn, and then there’s also the commodities and money markets.”