Financial Intermediaries in an Era of Disintermediation: European Brokerage Firms in a MiFID Context

Abstract

This paper is our first attempt to develop a “Finance-as-Practice” perspective, linking an empirical topic to the question regarding the intermediation / disintermediation dialectic in a MIFID context, as European financial markets are witnessing a major change in their normative structure. This regulatory initiative, still unfolding its consequences on the daily practices that take place within financial intermediaries, is currently modifying the collective realities that used to constitute markets, in times of crisis. It is therefore essential to unveil and scrutinize the effects brought by this normative text on market actors holding a nodal place, since the (re)construction of markets is at stake. Using MiFID as an example allowing us to probe into the intermediary role played by brokers, we show how they contribute to the enactment of markets through the deployment of mediations, thereby transforming the frames and flows of financial information. We also put a new emphasis on the meaning of “mediation”, in contemporary European financial markets.