The costs of trading and clearing and settlement have fallen in general as a result of the introduction of MiFID and the Code of Conduct, but some problems remain to be tackled. There is significant cross border activity throughout Europe and, in general, the cost of this activity is higher than that for domestic transactions, according to a report commissioned by the European Commission and conducted by Oxera. However, this difference can largely be attributed to economies of scale, as investors investing in cross border markets will generally have lower levels of activity than domestic investors, says the report.

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