Aquest Podcast

Recruiting in the Irish Financial Services Industry Like many sectors, the financial services industry is seeing great demand and competition for talent. In this episode of The Aquest Podcast, I chat with Jennifer Cahill, recruitment consultant, about what the landscape is like and how difficult it is in practice to recruit new staff. We discuss the steps that firms are taking to differentiate the...

MiCA and the future of Crypto Assets in EU After several years of drafting and refining, the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation has been finalised and published. This game-changing piece of legislation will have a profound impact on crypto assets - and their service providers - in the EU. I'm joined by Andrew Tzialli, crypto asset legal expert, to chat about the final version of MiCA, the timelin...

A Digital Future for Funds In light of the Funds Sector 2030 Review, I am joined by Giles Swan, formerly UK FCA and ICI Global, as we contemplate what a bolder, more digital future for the funds industry might look like. What if funds issued tokens instead of units or shares? What if subscriptions and redemptions happened instantenously? What if UCITS rules were written into smart contracts so tha...

Past, present and future of the Irish Funds Industry In the first episode of the Summer/Autumn 2023 season, I have a wide ranging discussion with Gerry Brady, INED and Elder Statesman (he said it was ok to call him that!) of the Irish Fund industry. We chat about the early days of the funds industry in Ireland and the tremendous efforts made collaboratively by industry and the public sector to est...

Episode Notes In the first episode of our new season, I chat with Paul Price, founder and CEO of Haven Green Investment Management. Haven Green offers an outsourced distribution function with a focus on funds pursing a sustainable investments policy. We chat about how Paul's team identifies the boutique managers it wants to work with and how the trend towards sustainable investing is likely to evo...

Fresh from moderating a webinar on SFTF and EMIR data quality and oversight, Ciaran Walshe, COO of Fund Recs, joins me on this episode of The Aquest Podcast. We chat about the take-aways from the webinar, with particular attention on the messaging delivered by the Central Bank of Ireland that data quality and reporting oversight needs to continue improving. Plenty to mull over for already busy Man...

We're back after a summer hiatus and crypto funds are on the agenda once again. This time, my guest is Daire Lawlor, MD at Interwoven, and we discuss the extent to which Irish regulated funds can invest in crypto currencies and digital assets. Our chat wanders into discussions about DLT, tokenisation and freedom with guardrails. Plenty to digest as we get our heads down for the run-in to year-end!...

Regulated crypto funds With investment in crypto continuing to generate investor interest (current market turmoil notwithstanding!), FS firms are exploring whether and how investment fund structures could be used to deliver exposure to crypto currencies. Leading the way when it comes to regulated crypto funds is Gibraltar. So I'm delighted to be joined by James Lasry, Funds and Crypto Lawyer at Ha...

Sustainability With sustainability and ESG being on everyone's lips, not just in the financial services industry, I thought it would be interesting to chat with Ann Shiels, a sustainability expert with Finlexsus. We chat the compliance challenges facing FS firms as they navigate the management of investment products with a wave of regulatory deadlines on the horizon. But more than that, I was inte...

Continuing on the theme from the last episode of The Aquest Podcast, I'm joined by Brian Sanya Mondoh to chat about the digital revolution and its impact on financial services in particular. I learn about how smart contracts, blockchain and Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) are likely to shape our world over the short-to-medium term. But we begin by chatting about life in Brian's home...

Blockchain expert Mauricio Magaldi of 11FS joins me for this episode of The Aquest Podcast to chat about blockchain and the financial services industry. We discuss current use cases and ponder how regulators could best adapt to the blockchain revolution. We also speak about Tradfi and contemplate the challenges and opportunities that DeFi and blockchain bring. Enjoy!

Episode Notes Introduced in 2015 with the objective of increasing alternative sources of funding for European capital markets, the European Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) regime has failed to gain any real traction. Why is this? And what can be done to fix it? In this episode of The Aquest Podcast, I'm joined by Ken Owens of PwC to mull over the problem with ELTIFs and discuss what could be don...

Episode Notes Tom Brennan, Head of Risk & Regulatory at EisnerAmper Ireland, joins me to chat all things ICAAP. With an ever increasing number of Irish firms now (or shortly) required to have an Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process, Tom guides us through the dos and don'ts and highlight some of the key considerations when putting together an ICAAP report. We also chat about some of the...

Episode Notes In this episode of The Aquest Podcast, I'm joined by crypto educator Nick Aston of the Ashton Talks Crypto podcast. We chat about how the profile of crypto investors is shifting from millennials to more experienced investors seeking alternative asset classes. We also discuss how cryptocurrencies and digital assets are gaining credibility and what more needs to be done to win the trus...

Episode Notes We've all been hearing about digital transformation in the FS industry for years now but has the COVID19 pandemic really accelerated this trend? For this episode of The Aquest Podcast, I'm joined by Alan Meaney to chat about this, about the 'build vs buy' question and whether ISO27001 certification is a pre-requisite for all FinTechs. We also discuss the return of Adminovate (one of...

Episode Notes In this episode of The Aquest Podcast, I'm joined by Jennifer Cahill of Savvi Recruitment Consultants. With demand for talent high but availability not-so-much, we chat about current market trends, skills in particular demand and the impact this is having on salaries. We chat about how WFH during the Covid-19 Pandemic has accelerated employers' attitudes to workplace flexibility by 5...

Episode Notes With so much interest and attention being paid to cryptocurrencies and digital assets, I thought it would be interesting to look at the darker side of the crypto world - crypto scams. So for this episode of The Aquest Podcast I'm delighted to be joined by Erica Stanford, author of 'Crypto Wars - Faked deaths, missing billions and industry disruption'. We chat about the anatomy of a c...

Episode Notes On this episode of the Aquest Podcast I'm joined by risk expert Dennis Slattery. We chat about best practices in risk management for Fund Mancos, how to succeed as a NextGen Fund Manco and the essential skills that risk professionals need to learn. Enjoy!

On this episode of The Aquest Podcast, I'm joined by cybersecurity expert Sam Glynn as we discuss the recent HSE cybersecurity breach and how financial services firms can avoid the same thing happening to them. Sam also has some advice on how the risk team and directors (i.e. non-techies!) can interact with IT and cyber experts and actually understand what is being said. We wrap up by chatting abo...

Shannon Eastman and I talk about her question to a dozen professionals in Financial Service Industry: "What in your perspective is the reason why D&I is still resisted by firms beyond a box ticking exercise?" The 3 unique perspectives at the table: the regulator, the firm and D&I consultants along with a brief exploration into the commercial value D&I offers business. go here

Shannon Eastman and I revisit our 2020 Predictions as part of our 12-month review. We look at the December 2019 predictions, and highlights that include: Adrian Whelan, Sam Glynn, Mark Fritz, Bob Quinn, #FIMC2020. We touch on 2021 activities coming up featuring Andrea Dermody of Dermody D&I Advisory, FIMC2021, Crypto, ESG, ILP, and there's still more.

In this episode, I'm joined by Bill Prew and Victoria Gillespie of Indos. We chat about how firms are approaching compliance with the new ESG requirements, the challenges they face and the opportunities available tp firms who really buy into the new ESG regime.

In the CP86 'Dear CEO' letter, the Central Bank calls out that mancos need to be better at performing due diligene before appointing a delegate and annually thereafter. It especially referenced due diligene where a manco has multiple delegate investment managers. But, as anyone who has been involved in requesting or providing due diligence information will know, the entire process is usually docum...

Session 5 on Friday 6 Nov is dedicate to those in leadership positions and those who support them. It contains topics on the Organisational Effectiveness Role, Time Commitments for Directors and Cybersecurity for Directors. There is even a case study on wellbeing in the workplace. On this podcast, I'm joined by Shannon Eastman, Teach A Brand To Fish, to summarise what attendees can expect from the...

With the best will in the world, sometimes things go wrong and firms suffer a breach of their regulatory obligations. For this episode of The Aquest Podcast, I chat with Michael Tuohy and Arnaud Barosi about what happens when things go wrong. We talk about the increased use of Risk Mitigation Programmes for asset management firms and what this means in practice. We also chat about Independent Expe...