Press Release: FSNF and Legatum form Legatum Financial Services Forum

PRESS RELEASE
London – Thursday 13 July 2017

LEGATUM INSTITUTE INCORPORATES THE FINANCIAL SERVICES NEGOTIATION FORUM TO CREATE THE LEGATUM FINANCIAL SERVICES FORUM

The Legatum Institute is delighted to announce the incorporation of the Financial Services Negotiation Forum (FSNF) to create the Legatum Financial Services Forum.










The new body, led by our Director of Economic Prosperity Studies Shanker Singham, will strengthen the work of the Legatum Institute’s Special Trade Commission (STC), providing independent, expert analysis on the future of financial services policy.

Liquidity - The currency of negotiation for financial services

As we enter into the start of negotiations, both the UK and the EU are publicly staking out their opening positions in an attempt to anchor the other side’s ambitions. Reports of banks moving en-mass to Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin are readily met by confident assertions that the bulk of the industry will remain in London.

In our latest research paper, Richard Ayres analyses the interests behind the positions concerning financial services and concludes that:

Discussion on Mutual Recognition of Regulatory Standards

This was a topic that we addressed in our first paper in January, in partnership with Norton Rose Fulbright.  This paper explored the concept of Triangulation, whereby the UK is positioned as a three-way hub for firms wishing to access the EU market, the rest of the world or those just doing business within the UK.

Since publication there has been much more said on the wider subject, from various quarters, and with the Article 50 deadline approaching it makes sense to revisit and re-examine the concept and consider questions such as:

Reshaping Data Protection for the Future of Financial Services

Our series of Brexit Breakfasts continues next Thursday, 23rd February, 8am-9.30am at Mercers’ Hall, Ironmonger Lane, where we will be joined by Victoria Hewson from the Legatum Institute Special Trade Commission, who will leading on the topic of:

Reshaping Data Protection for the Future of Financial Services

Brexit and the Issue of Market Liquidity

Today the FSNForum publishes its third research piece, looking at the mutual self-interest in a post-Brexit financial sector accommodation between the UK and the EU.

The paper, written by renown economist Des Supple of Event Horizon Research, concludes that Europe’s need to generate faster rates of economic growth and to ensure stable funding sources means that it is in the self-interest of the EU to ensure a mutually acceptable post-Brexit. Furthermore, the ultimate beneficiary of a disruptive Brexit for financial services would likely be New York, which could imply a new loss of risk weighted assets, AUM, employment and regulatory influence from the European time-zone.

Euro Clearing and Brexit - The Practitioners' View

Today the FSNForum publishes its second research piece, considering the EU’s proposal that the clearing of euro-denominated products should be restricted to the Eurozone.

The paper suggests why it could be in the best interests of the EU for clearing of these products to continue outside the Eurozone and highlights 4 key findings:

Examining Regulatory Equivalence

A new report by the global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, commissioned by the Financial Services Negotiation Forum, was published today. The paper examines approaches to the interpretation and measurement of equivalence.

The report finds that there are common features between equivalence and passporting (such as cooperation arrangements, comparable regulatory frameworks and data sharing) which suggest that a framework of equivalence could be established to ensure a harmonised approach to equivalence in UK-EU negotiations.

Click here to download the full report.

Click here to view the press release from Norton Rose Fulbright.