Following the Rules

Today’s episode is a special one produced in association with Smarsh, a US-headquartered technology firm providing global financial services companies with the tools to capture, store, and monitor their communications. Today’s guest outlines why it’s imperative that regulators and the financial services firms they supervise work together now to determine industry best practice for modernising comp...

Today’s guest  was the first person in the world to be jailed for rigging the London interbank offered rate a benchmark that helped to determine interest rates or mortgages in sizeable corporate loans. He is also one of the only bankers to be sent to prison after the financial crisis. Tom Hayes is a former UBS and Citigroup trader who spent half of his 11-year sentence in prison. His release in ea...

Today’s guest outlines where in the financial services sector compliance professionals will be able to find new jobs and salary increases in the coming months, and where we can expect a slowdown in recruitment. He details the common mistake finance bosses make when hiring and promoting back-office expertise and how to avoid them. And he explains why – and how – financial services execs must act no...

Today’s guests set out how financial services firms should best respond to the now myriad and rapidly-changing environmental, social and governance requirements in existence worldwide and the steps they should take now to prepare for formal or informal challenges to their ESG credentials. They outline the role of legal and compliance staff as well as front office executives in such responses and t...

Today’s guest explains what he believes the right regulatory response to the collapse of crypto exchange FTX would be. He details the policies UK lawmakers and regulators should consider as they seek to more closely police all things crypto while also establishing the City’s as a competitive finance hub post-Brexit. And he outlines what EU policymakers got right and where he believes they went wro...

Today’s guest urges UK lawmakers to create a replacement body to the audit, actuarial and accounting watchdog the Financial Reporting Council “as fast as possible”, almost four years after such a move was first recommended. She lays out the case for the UK government to prioritise better, simpler rule-making over more regulation when looking to reform the UK’s financial services rulebook post-Brex...

Today’s guest outlines how she believes UK lawmakers and regulators can best retain and grow a competitive fintech hub both in a tough economic period and the City’s new post-Brexit era. She details the achievements of the UK’s approach to open banking, and offers advice on how to move this initiative forward.  These are ideas we should see feed through into action because Charlotte Crosswell is n...

Today’s guest calls out UK finance regulators for their vocal opposition to proposed new government powers that would see lawmakers able to call watchdogs in to explain aspects of their approach to policing the City, arguing that such a stance is both “self delusion” and “constitutionally wrong”. He calls on the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to stop seeing City executives as “a bunch of crimina...

Today’s guest outlines the steps UK institutions, and their regulators could take now to prevent London from losing its status as a global clearing hub. He details the regulatory changes to equity markets and pension fund rules that UK lawmakers should consider to ensure the City retains its global leadership in financial services post-Brexit. And he explains how a proposed 2017 merger between the...

Today’s guest outlines why, in a time of significant cuts to public services, the UK government should consider increasing funding for the Serious Fraud Office, the UK’s top prosecution agency for white collar crime. He also lays out the case for significantly simplifying the workload of the UK markets watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority and offers tips for those looking to pursue a career at...

Today’s guest explains how he would like to see the UK parliament’s influential Treasury Select Committee change to best regulate new asset classes like crypto. He details the regulatory priorities he believes the next UK government should have to future-proof the UK financial services sector. He also outlines his concerns around the UK markets watchdog’s ability to cope with its ever-expanding to...

Today’s guest explains why the UK’s financial sector could be heading towards another major financial scandal and what City regulators and firms under their remit can do now to prevent such an event from coming to fruition. He outlines how he believes the UK markets’ watchdog’s approach to policing City behaviour must change to better enable finance firms to adhere to their expectations. He also d...

Today’s guest discusses what regulators and lawmakers should consider in their efforts to rethink regulation for UK insurers post-Brexit. She explains what UK watchdogs should be doing now to foster innovation within the insurance sector, and how regulators themselves could innovate to improve rule-making for financial services firms generally. She also challenges City bosses in their approach to...

Today’s guest details how European regulators are changing their approach to regulating Europe’s markets and what that means for the financial services firms under their supervision. He outlines the tools Europe’s top finance watchdogs are missing in their efforts to better police European markets, and how he believes national European regulators need to fill the gaps in regulatory expertise creat...

Today’s guest explains why he was reluctant to pursue an aspect of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s proposed financial services reforms while in office. He calls on UK regulators to rethink the way they interact with the financial services industry and lays out the case for a fundamental review of the fees the UK markets’ watchdog charges the financial services firms it polices. He also opens up on his...

Today’s guest outlines what she believes a UK government under prime minister Liz Truss will really mean for the country’s financial services sector. She explains why it’s time for the UK’s markets' watchdog to take a regulatory pause, and why a rethink of the FCA’s industry levy is needed. She also details what UK lawmakers missed in relation to post-Brexit reform of finance and what City execs c...

Today’s guest details the EU and UK regulatory concerns that he believes should be keeping the world’s largest hedge funds up at night. He calls on UK lawmakers to do more to address what he sees as an urgent need for a UK fund vehicle to help the country’s asset management sector better compete with its rival European hubs. And he warns of the unfortunate regulatory repercussions arising from pol...

Today’s episode is a special one produced in association with ComplyAdvantage, a UK-headquartered technology firm providing global financial services companies with the tools to counteract financial crime. Today’s guest explains how companies can best use their sanctions compliance processes to gain a competitive advantage and he details what could be done to prevent cryptocurrencies from being us...

Today’s guest details the problems he sees arising from the City reforms proposed by the candidates vying to become the UK’s new prime minister. He outlines his plans to address the issues he sees at the UK markets watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority. And he explains why he fears that the current drive to innovate compliance could ultimately do more to weaken the function than improve it. Pet...

Today’s guest outlines how he believes UK markets watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority is falling short in its efforts to clamp down on poor behaviour amongst City bosses. He details what regulators are doing now to more closely track the culture of financial institutions under their watch, and what the firms in question are getting wrong in their response. And he explains how behavioural scie...

Today’s guest reveals how one of the world’s largest banks navigates regulatory change. He outlines what his bosses want to know when the UK appoints a new Prime Minister, and he details what he believes needs to happen to ensure the UK financial markets remain competitive post-Brexit. Richard Kaye has spent the past seven of his 26 year career at banking giant JP Morgan guiding the bank’s approac...

Today’s episode is a deep dive into the Financial Conduct Authority’s efforts to tackle finance workers’ misbehaviour outside of the day job. In it, I reveal that the FCA received 746 notifications of such misconduct amongst senior City staff in 2020 and 2021. Of those, 646 related to breaches of Covid restrictions. Together with today’s guests, we discuss the action the FCA is likely to take as a...

Today’s guest details what finance bosses should be doing now to better manage future compliance crises. He reveals what he really wants from his senior compliance executives and the common mistakes those in that role make when interacting with top bosses at any business. He details what UK lawmakers missed when it came to post-Brexit reform of the City and why there’s nothing to be gained from pa...

Today’s guest warns that the compliance sector risks a major skills shortage in its junior ranks. He reveals why the majority of regulatory technology solutions can not live up to their promise. He unpicks the compliance challenge created by the increasing regulatory focus on environmental, social and governance matters and he outlines the skills he looks for when hiring compliance professionals i...

Today’s guest outlines the vast compliance challenges that financial services companies with a European presence must tackle to ready themselves for the world’s first far-reaching set of rules specifically targeting the development and use of artificial intelligence. She warns that more than 80% of finance firms polled are currently ill-equipped to meet a number of the key requirements of the impe...