The Asian Association of Independent Research Providers (AsiaIRP) and its European equivalent, EuroIRP have formed a strategic partnership designed to facilitate access to new markets for research companies in each group.
The advice will cover regulatory issues in both regions, combine purchasing power, offer discounted PR advice for Asian markets and media, alerts for voting seasons, events and speaking engagements, IT solutions such as iPad apps, and IP protection such as PDF tracking technology.
Both AsiaIRP and EuroIRP have stated that the partnership was created in response to direct requests from European research providers. “In a recent EuroIRP member survey, three quarters of our members said they wanted easier access to Asian markets, said Elaine Mulcahy, EuroIRP spokeswoman. “This new partnership will facilitate that, as well as giving members of both groups some new benefits that being part of a larger group can provide.”
Access to independent research is useful for buy-side traders as it enables them to pursue an unbundled approach to the purchase of the execution services they use, thus potentially helping to reduce costs.
Lucy Carmody, AsiaIRP co-founder, added that because Asia has no common regulation that paves the way for commission sharing agreements (CSAs) comparable to MiFID in Europe, the extra input provided by experienced Europeans will be of value in Asian debates on the subject of unbundling research from execution.
Consultancy TABB Group recently released a new report that argued the buy-side will shift towards a global CSA approach in the next few years, following advances in technology that have given US buy-side firms greater control over how they unbundle execution and research payments.
According to the research, the coming years will see a drive towards the development of a single CSA application that will be used to manage balances and payments, and separate trade decisions from research allocation globally.