Transparency will come in the form of some of the main requirements of the new regulation in relation to broker/dealers. With Mifif brokers are required to deliver "best execution" . This implies best price as well as fastest fulfillment of an order. Together with this requirement, brokers need to report clear information in pre-trade and post-trade phase. These requirements will obviously increase transparency.

Competition on the other hand will come from the possibility of trading equities in a platform aside from the traditional regulated exchanges. Mifid allows the existence of "systematic internalisers", whereby customer’s orders are matched by a broker internally rather than showing them to the market. Moreover, Mifid allows the creation of multilateral trading facilities-MTF-. These new venues will allow parties to trade among themselves away from the exchanges. This is similar to the crossing networks in the US (like Archipielago) . Mifid has encouraged already some new MTFs such as Chi-X or Project Turquoise (backed by a group of Europe's largest banks).These platforms will compete with the region's exchanges for trading in the largest stocks. Hopefully this competition will bring down fees, making trading cheaper for the consumers.

So both targets are welcome: transparency and cheaper execution.