Thomson Reuters revamps Eikon with an eye on Mifid II
Thomson Reuters has revamped research capabilities on its Eikon financial desktop product with an eye on Mifid II, the suite of European Union regulations due in January that will require firms to unbundle research fees from transactions charges. The changes will enable buy-side and sell-side users to better manage their research usage, the company said. As part of the move, Eikon will support buy-side firms' reporting requirement. 

Source: Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters has integrated and enhanced its robust research capabilities on its flagship financial desktop Eikon as part of its ongoing commitment to help financial institutions manage impending MiFID II research unbundling requirements set to be implemented in January, 2018.

These are part of a series of research unbundling enhancements that Thomson Reuters will continue to make in 2017 through new products and third-party partnerships.

The new Thomson Reuters MiFID II Entitlements Solution features upgraded entitlement granularity to meet brokers’ flexible segmentation requirements. It provides seamless entitlement request and response functionality for the sell-side and buy-side through our Research Management Console, and a comprehensive Research Entitlement API for contributor CRM integration. Furthermore, to support buy-side clients’ regulatory reporting requirements, Thomson Reuters has also enhanced its readership reporting systems with better usage tracking.

MiFID II imposes a series of new restrictions and structures on research use by financial institutions, specifically how research is paid for and managed by the institution. The rules effectively eliminate free research or research paid based on specific trading or investing decisions. To help clients navigate these research unbundling challenges, Thomson Reuters Eikon research solutions provide users the ability to objectively assess sell-side analyst quality, manage entitlements to external research, gain insights quicker through improved research discovery, and effectively evaluate a firm’s research team.

“The unbundling requirements are a game-changer with respect to the research segment of the financial services industry, forcing companies to radically alter what are long-standing business practices,” said Mahesh Narayan, head of portfolio management and research, Thomson Reuters. “Our established research capabilities make Thomson Reuters well-positioned to provide unbiased and powerful solutions that help clients navigate and comply with MiFID II research unbundling requirements. In addition to developing our own products, as an open platform, we are committed to partnering with third-parties that adds further value to our Eikon users.”

Powered by Thomson Reuters Intelligent Tagging, and using Eikon’s Advanced Research Search, and Search & Discover capabilities, Eikon users can quickly and easily find the most relevant and valuable research through analyst rankings, specific themes, companies, individuals, data points, keywords and other related search topics.

Thomson Reuters is one of the largest aggregators of real-time research in the world and offers a comprehensive portfolio of research-related products for both the buy-side and sell-side. Thomson Reuters Eikon provides unbiased sell-side analyst performance evaluation focusing on analyst accuracy as well as relative analyst ranking by security and sector. Through Thomson Reuters StarMine investment analytics, buy-side professionals can utilize an analyst score card and rankings to make and/or justify broker section decisions. As a leading provider of content distribution services to the sell-side Research community, Thomson Reuters is committed to continued improvement in research entitlements and controls, to ensure that research content is distributed to clients according to its contributors’ exact needs as market regulations evolve.

Thomson Reuters is committed to providing its clients with solutions to meet the full range of MiFID II regulations. Recently announced initiatives to help its clients achieve MiFID II compliance include: a partnership with BestX for FX transaction cost analysis; the launch of an enhanced analytics platform for best execution and SI determination (Velocity Analytics 8.0); plans to provide a holistic set of MiFID II services including multi-asset best execution, SI (Systematic Internaliser) determination, market data aggregation and bespoke reference data services; a collaboration with Tradeweb for APA (Approved Publication Arrangement) services; and enhancements to its Tick History feed.