No respite from the red tape despite Brexit, Fidessa warns

floor by Graham Bosher, cofounder of healthy snacks firm Graze, who floated the idea in 2013 and tasked him with launching the business a year later. Other cofounders include TV vet Joe Inglis, former Amazon web architect Steve Webster and exZoopla software developer Mark Holland. Family and friends are among backers of the venture, which has also obtained capital from Octopus Investments and A POSSIBLE Brexit-sparked bonfire of EU red tape will fail to ignite in the City of London, trading software firm Fidessa said.

The UK group, which has a hand in nearly 80% of trades whizzing around London’s markets, reckons the EU’s strict MiFid II trading rules, coming into force in 2018, will go ahead as planned despite the Leave vote.

Many Brexiteers had promised to take back control of finance rules after the June 23 vote. “It’s going to go ahead regardless of Brexit,” boss Chris Aspinwall said. “We probably won’t have exited by the time it comes in and lots of the rules in MiFID II were driven by the UK. It will be a no-brainer.”

The long-delayed rules, first proposed in 2011, are the idea of former EU Commissioner Michel Barnier, now responsible for the Commission’s Brexit negotiations. The directive is designed to police everything from trading venues to commission payments in a bid to protect investors.

Fidessa’s software is the plumbing underpinning global financial markets, and about 85% of the world’s top investment banks, broker and hedge funds use its programmes.

Increased regulation is normally good for Fidessa because it puts more focus on automating the workflow of a trade, which its software is designed to address.

Half-year revenues rose 9% to £145.9 million and profits grew 14% to £22.2 million.