Following the Rules

Howden CAP’s Mary O’Connor on improving regulation in UK finance and how City bosses should change their approach to gender diversity

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 gender diversity within the financial services sector, and outlines how she plans to grow her new business to best reflect the lessons she has learned with regards to fostering diversity of talent.
These are all subjects close to her heart. Because Mary O’Connor is not only a former regulator whose 30-year career includes senior positions in the insurance sector. She also became the first women to head up a professional services firm in the UK when she became acting CEO of KPMG in 2021. In 2022, she joined Howden Broking as CEO of its new business Howden CAP (Capital, Advisory and Placement).

PwC’s Michael Huertas on the tools EU watchdogs are missing and how Europe’s national regulators are filling in the gaps

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 created as a result. He also explains why finance bosses should be preparing now for an upcoming set of European accountability rules similar to the UK’s senior managers and certification regime and plenty more in between…
Dr Michael Huertas is Frankfurt-based lawyer whose 14 year career has included stints the European Central Bank and Lloyds Banking Group. Since 2021, he has been advising some og the world’s largest financial services firms as a partner and head of the European financial institutions regulatory group at PwC Legal.

Former City minister John Glen on the regulatory changes the UK really needs now and how he’d like to see his proposed Brexit reforms put to use

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 frustrations while spearheading the UK’s post-Brexit financial services reforms through parliament and discusses his plans for the future.
John Glen has been a member of parliament for Salisbury since 2010 and became the longest-serving City minister ever when in the post from 2018 to 2022. This is his first interview about his time in office since he resigned from his ministerial role in July citing a “complete lack of confidence” in Boris Johnson’s premiership. The interview was conducted in his Westminster office.

Global Counsel’s Becca Park on why the Financial Conduct Authority needs to take a regulatory pause and rethink its industry levy

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 can do now to shape the reform agenda.  
Becca Park is a former lawyer who was previously director of corporate affairs for the trade body UK Finance, and a member of the Executive Committee for the European Banking Federation. In 2021, she joined consulting group Global Counsel where she has been advising financial services firms on policy and regulation as its senior director for the financial services practice since 2022.

Sidley Austin’s Leonard Ng on the regulatory change UK asset managers urgently need and the reforms set to keep hedge fund managers up at night

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 politicisation of the European rulemaking process.
Leonard Ng is a member of the executive committee and co-head of the UK and EU financial services regulation group at US law firm Sidley Austin.

Special episode: ComplyAdvantage’s Charlie Delingpole on the regulatory changes needed to stop the UK’s alienation of fintech execs

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 used as a sanctions evasion tool. He also outlines how lawmakers and regulators risk alienating new businesses from coming to the UK and the actions they could take to ensure the country’s financial services sector remains globally relevant.
Charlie Delingpole is a former JP Morgan banker turned technology entrepreneur. In 2010, he set up MarketFinance, a corporate financial solutions company which raised $59M in funding before Delingpole’s departure in 2014 to become founder and CEO at ComplyAdvantage.

Former regulator and compliance chief Peter Haines on fixing the FCA and managing political interference in UK regulation

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.
Peter Haines has spent 40 years working for regulators including the FCA’s predecessors and in senior compliance roles at large banks including Bank of America. Since 2017, he has led training in Governance, Risk and Compliance at training provider CCL Academy.
 

Roger Miles, UK Finance Academy’s culture and conduct guru, on what regulators and finance firms are getting wrong in their efforts to police bad behaviour

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 science could be applied to the UK regulatory framework to better facilitate compliance with the rules.
These are all subjects close to his heart. Because Roger Miles is a behavioural risk expert with a PhD in the psychology of regulatory design. Since 2016, he has led lobby group UK Finance’s Conduct and Culture Academy as it’s co-founder and faculty leader.
 

JP Morgan’s Richard Kaye on the skills and relationships you need to guide a banking giant through political and regulatory change

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 approach to regulatory change outside of the US, as its head of international public affairs
 

Revealed: The FCA received 746 notifications of non-financial misconduct amongst senior City staff in 2020 and 2021. What’s next?

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 result of such behaviour, what finance firms should be doing now to better track and ultimately stamp out non-financial misconduct and plenty more in between.
Penny Miller is a partner and Head of the Financial Services Regulatory practice at law firm Simmons & Simmons.
Mark Turner is a managing director in the Financial Services Compliance and Regulation practice at risk consultancy Kroll.
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In response to the topics covered in this podcast, a spokesperson for the FCA said: 
“We expect high standards of character and probity from those who work in the financial services industry. And we have shown our willingness to ban those who fall short, for example those guilty of serious sexual offences"
“It is important to be clear about how our remit operates here," the spokesperson continued. "We take action where established non-financial misconduct reveals a person lacks fitness and properness to carry out a regulated function. The real measure of success is not just ensuring enforcement action is taken in appropriate cases but that firms themselves have raised the conduct bar to ensure high standards of fitness and properness exist among staff.”