Following the Rules

Today’s episode is a special one produced in association with Simmons & Simmons, an international law firm supporting financial institutions across the global regulatory landscape.

It also forms part of a new Following the Rules series providing practical, actionable guidance to help listeners and the financial services firms they work for navigate legal, regulatory, technological, and cultural change.

In this episode, we turn ...

Today’s guest discusses how some wholesale financial institutions may be unnecessarily “gold-plating” their efforts to comply with the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Duty regime.

She details how the regulator plans to both clarify and simplify its expectations of all firms subject to the far-reaching ruleset.

She also discusses the FCA’s plans to help firms, both large and small, navigate the rapid deployment of AI tools ac...

Today’s episode is a special one produced in association with Smarsh, a technology firm providing global financial institutions with the tools to capture, store, and monitor their communications.

It also marks the launch of a new Following the Rules series providing practical, actionable guidance to help listeners and the financial services firms they work for navigate legal, regulatory, technological, and cultural change.

We’re ki...

Today’s guest outlines where governments and financial regulators are going wrong in their supervision of the sector.

He details where he sees potentially systemic risks mounting and he explains what banks, financial institutions and their supervisors can do now to prevent a significant blow-up from occurring on their watch.

Mark Watson is a governance and risk expert whose three-decade career includes stints advising financial ins...

Today’s guest explains why global standards for financial conduct could help counter the risk of rising regulatory fragmentation - providing, as he puts it, “the glue to hold diverging rule books together.”

He outlines how a robust governance framework could help financial institutions better tackle toxic workplace behaviour. He explains why he believes a central repository for authenticated data may be key to fighting AI-generated...

Today’s guest calls on regulators and policymakers to stop seeking to regulate alternative asset managers like they’re banks.

She details how policymakers can best rethink the regulatory framework for the non-bank sector to benefit not only alternative asset managers but also the financial sector more broadly.

And she explains how a push to harmonise the rulebooks between competing financial hub could also help with a broader push ...

Today’s guest pinpoints the “very technical” but overly complex regulatory requirements underpinning financial markets that he believes regulators could rethink to generate “big savings” for both themselves and the market participants they oversee.

He discusses the lessons he would like to see industry players take on board and the changes he believes policymakers should consider in their efforts to prevent a repeat of recent high-...

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 regimes are implemented in as effective a...

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 why it is imperative that governments...

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 take to embrace ESG and DEI princ...

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 avoid when seeking to measure workplac...

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 to lose sight of the “foundation...

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 serve as a wake-up call, and how he ...

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 participation in London’s capital mar...

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 2025 and beyond.  They detail the com...

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 watchdog, his strategies for copying wit...

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 attractive investment destination.

He als...

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 is critical that the industry and a...

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 tech giant Meta for “not doing en...