Financial Conduct Authority CEO, Martin Wheatley has stressed the importance of developing rules not just for a UK context but also taking account of how the UK sits within Europe and more globally.
Speaking at the regulators annual meeting on Thursday, Wheatley explained that such harmonisation was one of the group’s focus areas.
Speaking directly about the rules regulating the services that can be paid for using dealing commissions, Wheatley said, the regulator won’t introduce any new rules until they have been clarified at a European level.
“At that point, which we expect to be 2017,, we expect to see a harmonised rule book across Europe.”
The FCA’s recommendation that dealing commission be unbundled from the payment by investors for research, was also the subject of a recent discussion paper, covered in more detail here.
In the group’s Annual Report, released earlier in the week, the FCA added: “In our policy statement (PS14/7) we reinforced our rules and provided greater clarity on what investment managers can pay for using client dealing commission. We will look at the potential need for wider reform alongside ongoing EU discussions on revising the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).”
At a broader level, in a section dedicated to listing the various areas in which it has contribute to international debates and policy-making processes, the regulator said: “Our senior executives engage regularly with partners and policy makers from Europe, the US and across the globe to discuss issues of joint importance, share best practices and look for ways of enhancing cooperation.”
