It’s not broken. But the European Union is going to fix it anyway. Rules designed to end conflicts of interest in equities research are set to have a spillover impact on research into bonds and currencies.

The EU's revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, Mifid II, which comes into force in 2017, aims to prevent fund managers from using client dealing commissions as an indirect way of paying brokers for equity research. Regulators believe this "bundled" payment method has inherent conflicts of interest, such as discouraging banks and brokers from seeking the best execution for their investor customers.