On Thursday the 3rd, the ACI UK (Financial Markets Association) hosted the Square Mile Great Debate at the Old Library in the Guildhall. It was an informative evening for all, with some interesting questions and debate amongst the following panelists.
ACI Square Mile Debate Panelists
- Alan Bozian (CEO of CLS)
- Sharon Bowles (MEP Chairman of the European parliament’s Economic and Monteary Affairs committee)
- Thomas Soede, global head of Fixed Income Electronic Markets at BNP Paribas
- Gavin Wells, formerly global head of FX e-commerce at Citibank and now a financial markets consultant at LCH Clearnet
Questions stimulating debate included:
- Why should FX be treated as an investment product?
- Looking at impending regulation, is this an instance national politics manipulating FX and creating systemic risk?
- Does the EU have a possible excemption to Dodd Frank?
- Within FX, why is Dodd Frank mandating settlement?
- What is the scope for regulatory arbitrage, and what do you think regulators will do…will people relocate to Singapore?
- How possible would it be to relocate the centre of your FX business? (General consensus was, “not very”).
- Surely regulatory arbitrage increases risk (look at insurance companies and banks). Will it not simply trigger an even bigger crisis?
- What about Asia? The debate seems limited to the Americas and Europe, and Asia is not being included in discussions often enough.
- How connected are the Americans and the EU in terms of agreeing on regulation?
Throughout the debate both audience members and panels questioned the application of regulation to FX, as it had not been the cause of financial meldown in the first place.
Trevor Carr gives a great account of the evening on the EuroMoney Weekly FiX (password required).
Further UK based ACI events can be found at: http://www.aci-uk.com/natevent.html
Filed under: Dodd Frank, FX, Regulation |
SingleDealerPlatforms.Org 
Leave a Reply