The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today published the interim findings of its asset management market study, which suggests that there is weak price competition in a number of areas of the asset management industry. The FCA launched the market study in November 2015 to assess whether competition is working effectively. It looked at whether institutional and retail investors get good value for money when purchasing asset management services.
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by Jaime Caruana

Today my topic is the global bond market, a subject of keen interest to asset managers. The bond market in major currencies plays a much larger role than funding the gap between government spending and revenues. Nowadays the yields on such bonds ramify widely in the real economy and financial markets. Corporate treasurers use these yields to assess the value to shareholders of real investment projects. These yields determine how much households pay on their fixed rate mortgages. And they have become the cornerstone of valuation of other long-term assets, ranging from equities and real estate, to gold and foreign exchange.  Continue reading…

At their meeting at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel this weekend, the central bank Governors of the Global Economy Meeting (GEM)1 appointed Ms Jacqueline Loh, Deputy Managing Director at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), as Chair of the Markets Committee. The Markets Committee is a forum where senior central bank officials jointly monitor developments in financial markets and assess their implications for market functioning and central bank operations.
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This statement provides an update on the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) review of Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) treatment of small and medium enterprise (SME) customers in financial difficulty. The statement addresses the announcement made by RBS today regarding customers transferred to its Global Restructuring Group (GRG), gives a summary of the findings of the report by Promontory Financial Group (Promontory) and sets out the next steps which the FCA will take. Continue reading…

Dealmaking appetite in Europe has been overshadowed by the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, according to the fourth edition of the European M&A Outlook, published by CMS in association with Mergermarket. The report canvassed the opinions of 230 Europe-based executives, from corporates and private equity firms, both before and after the UK’s referendum on 23 June. In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, 66% of respondents believed European M&A will be more muted over the next 12 months, compared to just 18% pre-referendum. Moreover, while only 23% of those surveyed before 23 June felt less positive about levels of European M&A activity than they did in the previous year, after the vote 90% said they were less positive about the European deal outlook.
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by Andrew Bailey

Lord Mayor, at the end of June it seemed like time to mix things up at the regulators, so here you have Sam and me, from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) respectively. You see, everything seemed a bit dull at the end of June, after all; we had nothing else to do. I want to congratulate Sam – it is a very well deserved appointment – and I have no doubt that he will sort out the PRA after that guy who came before him. Sam is someone who genuinely understands Solvency II, which brings to mind what Lord Palmerston said about the Schleswig-Holstein Question. And, that is Lord Palmerston the former Foreign Secretary, not the Foreign Office cat speaking. For those of you not versed in European politics in the 1800s (does anyone want to lay claim to that honour), Lord Palmerston said “The Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated; only three men in Europe have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who is dead. The second was a German professor who became mad. I (and I think he was speaking as the Foreign Secretary), am the third and I have forgotten all about it.” 
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The FCA has today banned two individuals from performing any function in relation to any regulated activity in the financial services industry. On 22 November 2013, Richard Aston Clay (‘Mr Clay’) and Kathryn Joy Clark (‘Ms Clark’) were charged with dishonesty offences by the Serious Fraud Office and Nottinghamshire Police. The offences committed by Mr Clay and Ms Clark primarily involved investments in relation to Arck LLP made through HD Administrators LLP (‘HDA’) or through other related companies.
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by Neil Currie

The hazardous nature of the industries that we operate in, like the oil, gas and chemical industry, dictates that our processes and systems are required to be safe, robust and reliable. At the centre of this is a common thread: risk assessment. When identifying hazards and choosing controls there is one key question to answer: are we getting it right?
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by Jorden Veenstra

As with most European legislation MiFID I contained a commitment by the European Commission to re-examine the implementation and impact of MiFID I after a number of years. MiFID II is meant to address the shortcomings of the original MiFID, to extend the scope of MiFID, to respond to lessons learned during the financial crisis and to provide for market and technological developments since 2004. Let us take a closer look at how MiFID II. due for implimentation on January 3, 2018, will impact securities exchanges’ data businesses.
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