Regulation Tomorrow Podcast NRF Regulation Tomorrow Podcast

In our latest edition of Regulation Around the World, we discuss the latest financial services regulatory developments concerning investment research in the UK and EU. We then consider the US regulatory regime for investment research and key issues for non-US firms.

In the second in our series of Regulation Tomorrow Plus podcasts on the FCA’s intervention in the motor finance sector, we take a detailed look at the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)’s decisions upholding specific complaints in relation to historical discretionary commission arrangements. The decisions were one of the catalysts for the action the FCA is taking in the sector, and in this podcast we discuss the arguments presented by the firms to the FOS as well as the decisions reached by the FOS.

In our latest podcast, Partner Matthew Gregory is joined by Senior Associate Joe Bamford, both of whom specialise in retail conduct, to discuss the FCA’s consultation (CP23/24) on changes to the capital requirements for personal investment firms, with particular focus on how firms must calculate their potential redress liabilities for these purposes. The podcast also touches on how these changes may be seen as part of the FCA’s wider proposals and recent regulatory programmes – such as the Consumer Duty. The podcast aims to assist personal investment firms, and key internal stakeholders such as in house legal counsel and compliance officers, in understanding the FCA’s proposed changes under the consultation.

In the fifth podcast in our DE&I series, Simon Lovegrove, Hannah Meakin and Hannah McAslan-Schaaf are joined by Alasdair Scott from GP Strategies to discuss inclusivity, how well contributions, presence, and perspectives of different groups of people are valued and integrated into an environment. Inclusivity has become essential in business today with new joiners looking for a specific working culture, one that fosters respect, humility and caters to the requirements of a diverse workforce. For example, Glassdoor found that 76% of job seekers reported that an inclusive workplace is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers. Also, inclusivity provides businesses with competitive advantage, in a 2023 McKinsey report it was found that organisations with parity in gender and ethnicity representation in senior roles saw profit levels 39% higher than their peers. The FCA and PRA both see the benefits of inclusivity and in their consultation proposals new measures are included for firms to report on a selection of inclusion metrics so as to provide a baseline of measurable data within financial services firms and across the sector.

In our EMEA regulatory insights series colleagues from our EMEA offices provide an update on some of the key regulatory issues they are seeing in their local market. In this latest episode Etelka Bogardi from our Hong Kong office discusses recent regulatory developments including derivatives reporting, the e-HKD Pilot Programme and Hong Kong Green Week – Finance Stream.

In this episode, we focus on fraud and specifically on key recent developments that banks and other financial sector firms should have on their radar as part of their risk management in this area.