Traders brace for research crackdown as easy money dries up

``Regulatory pressure to undo the traditional way brokers sell research alongside share dealing is alarming traders in Europe, who fear a further drop in business and more cost-cutting in an already tough environment. At stake is the lucrative but opaque system under which fund managers pay brokers an all-in commission on every trade, charged to the fund's clients, which covers not only the execution of the deal but research and other services.''