Reinventing Equity Research as a Profit-Making Business

Providing research ideas to long-only managers and hedge funds as a companion to execution services has been at the core of banks’ equity operations for decades. Imminent MiFID II regulation requires that research be distinct from trading, and that each be paid for separately. Some observers propose that these combined forces will render the business unprofitable and bring about the end of broker research. McKinsey’s view is that there will be an end only to equity research as we know it. In five years’ time, sell-side equity research will likely still play a crucial role in the fundamental investment processes of the buy side, but most firms’ research functions will be smaller and more focused, governed by a strategic appreciation of the buy side’s need to produce alpha. The ultimate size of each bank’s research revenue pool, however, will be determined by its ability to efficiently deliver quality, differentiated research, set realistic prices, and control distribution, all through a very different operating model.