Following the Rules

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.”

City veteran Martin Gilbert on how to prepare for your next compliance crisis, and what he really wants from rule-setters

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 paying too much attention to political turmoil.
Martin Gilbert is a City veteran with a long history in asset and wealth management. He co-founded Aberdeen Asset Management in 1983 and was its chief executive officer from 1991 to 2017 when the firm combined with a rival to form Standard Aberdeen, now abrdn. Among other directorships, he has chaired challenger bank Revolut since 2020 and asset management business AssetCo since 2021.

Ninety One’s Richard Brearley on compliance’s ’PR problem’, navigating ESG, and why most regtechs are doomed to fail

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 in a rapidly-changing sector.
Richard Brearley has spent almost 30 years helping to shape or navigate financial regulation. His career includes four years as a regulator in the markets division of the Financial Conduct Authority’s predecessor the Financial Services Authority, and 16 years in senior compliance roles at large funds and banks. Since 2021, he has led the compliance division at global investment manager Ninety One.

Eversheds Sutherland’s Charlotte Walker-Osborn reveals finance firms are ill-prepared for vast new AI rules and why that could cost them

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 impending European rules. She explains why EU regulators will come down hard on those who are caught out when the rules come into effect and why – and when - the UK could seek to follow the European approach.
 
Charlotte Walker-Osborn has spent 24 years advising both suppliers and customers, including a number of banks and insurance firms, on their development, procurement, deployment and use of technology and for the past 5 or so years AI. Since 2017, she has led the artificial intelligence and technology sector at law-firm Eversheds Sutherland as its international head.

Nick Miller, former FCA regulator and Moody’s MD, on the UK watchdog’s future and what not to do when interacting with your supervisor

Today’s guest outlines how he believes the Financial Conduct Authority’s ever-expanding remit could impact its drive to become a data-led regulator. He reveals some common mistakes financial services firms make when interacting with the watchdog. He explains why he thinks the UK's asset management regulatory framework could benefit from a fundamental rethink as lawmakers reshape the UK’s rulebook post-Brexit and he warns City bosses they risk serious fall-out if they do not act now to adequately manage their operational risk. 
These are subjects close to his heart because Nick Miller was the FCA’s head of asset management supervision for five years until early 2022. Since then, he has led Moody’s global regulatory affairs team as its managing director.

Kevin Hollinrake, Conservative MP and Chair of the APPG on fair business banking, calls on City bosses to help him fix London’s dirty money problem

Today’s guests lays out the case for an ambitious clampdown on economic crime and the way it is currently policed in the UK. He calls out UK regulators for their lack of proactiveness in addressing the issue and calls on financial services execs to help him shape the best possible path forward to rid London of its dirty money problem.
Kevin Hollinrake is a member of the British parliament for the ruling Conservative party and the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking.

Special episode: Smarsh’s Blane Warrene and TeleMessage’s Guy Levit on finance’s WhatsApp addiction and how to tackle it

Smarsh is a US-headquartered technology firm providing global financial services companies with the tools to capture, store, and monitor their digital communications for compliance purposes and to glean useful insights.
Today’s guests explain why regulators are right to be concerned about finance execs use of encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp and WeChat. They discuss what communications behaviour they think the world’s finance watchdogs should be looking to next and they outline how the world’s largest companies are navigating the challenges of monitoring employees’ mobile conversations.
Blane Warrene is vice president of product management at Smarsh, and Guy Levit is CEO of TeleMessage, a technology firm that Smarsh recently entered into an agreement to acquire, which captures mobile messaging data.