(Hedgefund Intelligence) Research unbundling – the separation of research payments from equity trading commissions, a key plank of European regulators’ proposed Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II – is looming large as a major concern among US hedge funds’ chief financial officers.ITG, the New York-headquartered independent execution broker and research provider, found that almost half of hedge fund CFOs – 49% – are ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ concerned by the prospect of research unbundling.