Spending on market analysis hit new heights last year amid Mifid II and an M&A flurry

The amount which businesses spent on financial market data and news last year hit a new record of $28.5bn (£20.2bn), according to research.

The spending total grew at the highest year-on-year rate since 2011, the data from TP Icap’s Burton-Taylor International Consulting showed.

The boost in research spending came in a year where imminent sweeping new regulation, the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid II), forced fund managers to pay brokers for market analysis rather than receiving it for free in return for a commission.

Read more: Mifid II set to slash analyst jobs and shake up the economics of broker research, according to a new report

“Certainly Mifid and changes to regulation impacted the research spend, but acquisition-related activity from investment banks, private equity firms and corporations (perhaps in expectation of higher merger and acquisition activity levels in 2018) helped drive the spend,” said Douglas Taylor, founder and managing director of Burton-Taylor.

Bloomberg’s terminal service returned to positive growth, while Moody’s Analytics delivered the highest global five-year compound annual growth rate. Meanwhile risk and compliance users were the fastest growing customer groups in 2017.

“The financial market data/analysis story continues to be one of unending demand for the information and tools necessary to ensure regulatory compliance,” said Taylor.

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