The book is a useful updated resource on EU regulation of investment firms and markets, and focuses (at least purportedly) on the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and Regulation 2014 (MiFID and MiFIR). The book is divided into five Parts, with Part I on introductory remarks by the editors, Part II focussing on investment firms and services, Part III on financial markets, Part IV on supervision and enforcement and finally Part V on looking to the future.

In terms of the book’s coverage, various chapters do not focus solely on the MiFID and MiFIR, and that is understandable, as: (a) examples raised from certain Member States’ regulatory regimes may show differences in how national regulators treat certain regulatory objectives; and (b) other financial regulation legislation in the EU may be relevant for discussing certain overall regulatory objective themes such as legislative harmonisation and consumer protection. In this respect, perhaps Chapter 21, which deals with how other EU legislation relates to the MiFID and MiFIR, may be placed too late in the book, and could have provided a useful overview at the start for the reader to contextualise her understanding the MiFID and MiFIR. The approach to comparing Member States’ regimes is not consistent in the book, as some chapters discuss for example Dutch and perhaps UK law (Chapters 8 and 9) but this is not an approach taken across all chapters. However as with large edited volumes like this, differences in approaches are only to be expected and overall most chapters provide a good discussion of the updated regulatory law, in a manner that introduces the substantive provisions and offers useful critique.

The editors rightly point out in Chapter 1 that the MiFID and MiFIR are part of the suite of EU financial regulation addressing multiple objectives: market integration, consumer protection and financial stability. In this respect we see Parts III and IV as being most relevant to the market integration objective, Part II as being most relevant to customer or consumer protection, and certain chapters in Parts II, III and V as being relevant to the financial stability theme. It may perhaps be warranted that some general remarks to be made at the high level as to whether these objectives pursued concurrently make for a coherent regime under the MiFID and MiFIR. There is room to critically question the multiplication of regulatory objectives in EU financial regulation from the single market to more protective and prudential standards since the catalyst of the global financial crisis 2007–09. Are there optimal balances in the pursuit of these objectives and how are they traded off, and does the substantive regulation reflect these? Moloney’s excellent Chapter 12 on market transparency highlights political compromises underlying market transparency regulation. This approach is, however, not consistently observed throughout the book.

Further, it can be observed in MiFID and MiFIR reforms that EU financial regulation is maturing into providing leadership in international standards: detailed client treatment rules provide an alternative regime to the US’ fiduciary standards for investment advice, and mirror provisions applicable to investment fund managers (UCITs and AIFMD); product governance rules (discussed in Chapter 5) introduce a new integrated perspective from manufacturing to distribution; market regulation in Part III provides conduct and governance regulation for the full range of financial markets and includes regulatory positions on emerging developments such as algorithmic high frequency trading (Chapter 17). In this regard, perhaps Chapter 10, which deals with third country firms in relation to MiFID and MiFIR, could discuss further how pursuit of equivalency recognitions may be a way of projecting the leadership and influence of EU regulatory standards and whether that is desirable.

There are several chapters whose inclusion open up certain questions relating to the book’s coverage, and may make the book seem under-inclusive. However it is appreciated that full-blown discussions in these areas may not be warranted for a book that should, after all, focus on MiFID and MiFIR. For example, Chapters 13, 22 and 23. Chapter 13 deals with SME growth markets, and is placed in Part III dealing with market regulation. However, the themes of interest in SME growth markets relate to corporate fund raising and investor protection, ie securities law, which is not the focus of the book. The rest of Part III more clearly focuses on market regulation in terms of conduct of financial markets and trading innovations. Chapter 13 is rather orphaned in its isolation from further treatment of securities markets and regulation in general. Similarly Chapter 23 on equity crowdfunding raises the same questions of fund-raising and investor protection. It is appreciated that there may be reader interest in this emerging development that is receiving market and regulatory attention, but again it lacks an appropriate contextualisation and can be perceived to suffer from somewhat cursory treatment.

Chapter 22 on shadow banking is an overview of phenomena in financial markets that mimic banks’ maturity transformation functions while being less stringently regulated. The regulatory arbitrage potential and financial stability risks emanating from these activities indeed call for regulatory attention and the chapter provides a good overview of the EU’s regulatory measures. It is again somewhat oddly placed in the book, although Part V (on looking towards the future) is a part that is able to accommodate a motley of themes and treatment.

I find Part III to be the best organised section of the book, giving thorough treatment to all relevant aspects of market regulation, from an overview of the scope of markets (Chapter 11), to market transparency regulation (Chapter 12), and then to dark pools and the challenges they pose to the regulatory objectives in transparency (Chapter 14). Chapters 15 and 16 deal with derivatives trading and regulation of the relevant markets, while Chapter 17 investigates the regulation of algorithmic and high frequency trading. Although the EU has rushed forward to provide a regulatory position for algorithmic and high frequency trading, the chapter rightly highlights Member State regulators’ dilemmas over the positive and negative aspects of such trading behaviour. It remains uncertain if the governance of such trading behaviour in terms of their control structures and internal organisation, as well as designating them as market-makers would be adequate to ensure that such traders do not undermine the objectives in fair and transparent markets. Chapter 18 provides a theoretical framework in which to understand market regulation, which is very useful but Fox’s discussion lacks integration with EU policy objectives which crucially shape the substantive regulation.

Part II of the book provides many useful chapters focused on client protection. The excellent Chapter 4 on whether a duty to act in clients’ best interests exists and how it is to be interpreted is the highlight of this Part, taking a critical approach in questioning whether clients can seek protection beyond specific duties such as suitability and best execution. The approach taken in this Part can perhaps be better standardised, as some chapters take the approach of discussing regulatory standards and objectives, eg in relation to inducements (Chapter 8), conflicts of interest (Chapter 7) or product governance (Chapter 5) while Chapters 6 and 9 take the approach of discussing investment firms’ business lines and how regulation applies to them. Further, it is also noted that there is no detailed dedication to discussing suitability, appropriateness and best execution, which is odd given that litigation in the UK has at least produced considerable jurisprudence, and debates in these areas should be of great interest to readers.

Part IV usefully incorporates a chapter on private law enforcement of regulatory standards, an issue of great interest as investor redress and market discipline surely reinforce regulatory objectives. It would have been of great benefit if the chapter also addressed the relationship between common law actions in the UK and regulatory protections, an issue not thoroughly resolved in judicial treatment today.

I recommend this book for an up-to-date overview of the key regulatory provisions in MiFID and MiFIR as well as accompanying level two and three legislation that are usefully referred to in the book. The role of textbooks in EU financial regulation should go towards highlighting more sharply the range and levels of primary sources of law referred to, as EU legislation, now proliferating in Levels One, Two and Three sources can indeed pose barriers to entry.