Following the Rules

Today’s guest discusses the European Securities and Markets Authority’s to-do list for 2025, and she explains the regulator’s priorities as it responds to an EU-wide effort to simplify the bloc’s rulebook. She outlines ESMA’s expectations of market participants subject to its landmark reforms on digital operational resilience and crypto-assets and she details how she plans to make sure both regime...

Today’s guest outlines how he expects financial services regulators in the UK and European Union to react to President Trump’s increasingly erratic policymaking. He details the regulatory changes he believes are needed to ensure the UK government achieves its growth mission and he highlights what Brussels must get right if the EU is serious about remaining globally competitive. He also explains wh...

Today’s guest is on a mission to bring ethics and compliance to the top table. She explains why ethics and compliance professionals should be given a seat in the boardroom and what’s stopping them from getting there.  She also discusses how businesses and their compliance executives can best navigate today’s increasingly fragmented regulatory environment, and she shares practical steps boards can...

Today’s guest explains how the world’s largest interdealer brokers is rethinking its approach to surveillance.  He outlines the benefits of adopting a more behaviourally led methodology to monitor financial services workers’ conduct, which he says provides a more holistic view of workplace culture when run alongside traditional surveillance. He details the common mistakes finance bosses should avo...

Today’s guest outlines how the compliance function, and those working within it, can best navigate today’s rapidly changing technological and regulatory environment. She discusses the industry's response to increasing regulatory scrutiny around surveillance as well as on bankers’ non-financial misconduct. And she explains why in amongst all the change it is critical that compliance officers do not...

Today’s guest outlines how he expects the rightward shift in global politics, from Trump’s resurgence to Europe’s own populist movements, is likely to reshape financial services regulation in the UK and EU.  He discusses how bank lobbyists and policymakers can navigate these shifting tides, why the industry’s “disturbing” response to the US ban on federal diversity and inclusion programmes must se...

Today’s guest outlines why she believes the government’s efforts to boost the UK’s economic growth are more likely to succeed if they include a fundamental shift in how the City talks about its capital markets and a rethink of how the City’s regulators are incentivised to support the growth mission.  She also discusses the remaining regulatory steps needed to encourage more retail and domestic par...

Today’s episode is a special one produced in association with Smarsh, a global technology firm providing financial services companies of all sizes around the world with the tools to capture, store, and monitor their communications.  Today’s guests discuss the regulatory priorities they believe will have the greatest influence on financial institutions’ communications surveillance programmes in 202...

Today’s guest discusses the Financial Conduct Authority’s to-do list for 2025 and outlines what City firms should and should not expect from the regulator as it seeks to prioritise growth and competitiveness in the coming months. He details the challenges commensurate with this new approach that he would like lawmakers to be more aware of.  He also opens up about life at the helm of the City watch...

Today’s guest calls on the government and City regulators to agree a “common vision” with the investment management industry to better enable those working in the sector to generate long-term growth in the UK. He details the areas where he believes the Financial Conduct Authority “still needs to demonstrate that they have completely understood” the government’s drive to make the UK a more attracti...

Today’s guests explain where they believe banks and their regulators are going wrong in their efforts to “fix” the sector’s cultural issues. They detail how lawmakers, financial bosses and their supervisors can best ensure that ongoing and increasing efforts to loosen rules governing behaviour in the industry don’t lead to a repeat of previous banking crises. And they outline why they believe it i...

Today’s guest discusses how finance executives and their regulators can best support the government’s efforts to drive growth and competitiveness in the UK’s financial services sector.  With that in mind, he outlines why he believes it is important to debate whether the Financial Conduct Authority has taken the right approach in its recent efforts to better protect UK consumers.  And he calls out...

Today’s episode is a special one produced in association with Smarsh, a global technology firm providing global financial services companies with the tools to capture, store, and monitor their communications.  Today’s guests discuss how organisations are responding to increasing regulatory pressure to improve their awareness of any non-financial misconduct occurring within their workforce. They ou...

Today’s guests outline where financial institutions are going wrong in their efforts to address their cultural shortcomings. They discuss the practical steps that those managing finance workers can take to meaningfully improve the culture within their organisations and they outline how regulators could best support their efforts. They also explain how such changes, and the cultural improvements de...

Today’s guest outlines how she expects regulators to push financial institutions to keep better track of their employees’ behaviour. She discusses how finance firms should be modernising their staff surveillance programmes in response to this regulatory focus and explains how those tasked with monitoring finance workers’ behaviour can best encourage their bosses to spend the money required to ensu...

Today’s episode is a special one produced in association with Smarsh, a global technology firm providing financial services companies with the tools to capture, store, and monitor their communications. Today’s guest discusses how financial institutions are changing their communications surveillance programmes in response to an increasing regulatory focus on this space. He details how generative AI...

Today’s guest discusses how he expects the Labour administration will prioritise a long list of pending financial services reforms inherited from the previous government. He explains how such a reform programme could be interpreted to provide City bosses with the clarity they seek as to how the government will address perceived tensions between its planned pro-growth agenda and its commitments to...

Today’s guest outlines what’s to come in a new package of tougher global capital requirements known as Basel 3.1. He explains how banks can best prepare for the reforms and discusses the prospects of a delay to their implementation in the UK. He outlines how the Prudential Regulation Authority is responding to a new obligation to consider the impact of their activities on the UK’s growth and compe...

Today’s guest explains why the UK could be sleepwalking into a new compliance scandal, and he details where such a blow-up might originate. He outlines how he believes financial services regulation could be improved – both by policymakers in government and the regulators themselves. And he details what opportunities for financial services reforms he believes the new Labour government should priori...

Today’s episode is a special one produced in association with Symphony, a secure and compliant communications and technology platform built for financial markets & trading teams. Today’s guest details how bosses at some of the world’s largest financial institutions are responding to increasing regulatory pressure to keep track of their employees’ communications across myriad messaging platform...

With just days to go until the UK goes to the polls, today’s guest outlines what City executives can expect from a Labour administration. He discusses how he expects the relationship between the new government and finance watchdogs to develop and why regulators may well see a new secondary objective land on their plate. He also details how he believes relations between the UK and the European Unio...

Today’s guest calls on politicians on both sides of the UK’s political spectrum to reconsider their ambivalence towards the City and to do more to promote its achievements in the run up to next month’s election and beyond. He outlines where fund managers and regulators may want to rethink their approach to investments within the environmental, social and governance space. He also explains how fina...

Today’s episode is a recording of a recent panel discussion at the annual conference for the Quoted Companies Alliance, which is an organisation that campaigns for the UK’s community of small and midsized publicly traded businesses and the firms that advise them. I was invited to moderate a panel on what more our regulators can do to support capital markets for companies of all sizes and we discus...

Today’s episode is a little different to normal. It is a recording of a recent panel discussion from City Week’s AI in Financial Services Leaders Summit which took place in London last week. I was invited to moderate a panel on the transformative potential of generative AI and we discussed interesting use cases for genAI in the financial services space, how boards and senior managers can best mana...

Today’s guest outlines how he is shaping the Financial Reporting Council into a “more strategic” organisation focused on proportionate oversight of auditors, accountants and actuaries.   He explains what support he needs from lawmakers and industry as he navigates that task, alongside setting standards and codes in the public interest, and discusses the FRC’s changing regulatory priorities more br...