An alarming thought for attendees at the forthcoming International Banking Conference 2017 hosted by the Association of Foreign Banks.

In the FT today comes the news that UK branches of foreign banks will have to adhere to whistleblowing rules that allow staff to voice concerns to City watchdogs without having to tell their employers. 

With the proximity of the implementation of MiFID II and anecdotal evidence pointing to a slow start to projects, or a scrapping of earlier projects and a re-start of the process, many will probably want to re-examine their strategy.This is especially true for those individuals in the Senior Managers and Certification regime and who thus have real “skin in the game”. On top of this the Global Code of Conduct for FX is yet to come (25^th of May) but on the 26^th of April, the UK Money Markets Code saw the light of day from the Bank of England and these codes are set to replace the UK NIPS Code.

This is likely to prompt a more thorough examination of what the new regulatory world requires and many will shift to much more “obeying the letter and spirit” of regulation rather than concentrating on finding short cuts to what is needed. More than ever a holistic regulatory solution will be attractive to those concerned by these developments. Couple this with hard coded monitoring against execution policies and concise dashboards showing adherence to regulation will allow those responsible (especially your overworked Compliance team) an easier sleep at night.

The real-time nature of the modern banking world means the time to implement a robust regulatory platform has never been more opportune. Monitoring UTC timestamps within a second for voice trading and a millisecond for electronic trades allows the creation of real-time alerts, via email or SMS for example, of breaches to the banks policies and regulatory responsibilities. Alongside this, a comprehensive set of MIS reports will allow managers to prove they are adherent and remove many of the concerns many have.

Eurobase will be attending the International Banking Conference on the 10^th and 11^th of May. We will be showcasing the latest version of our Regulatory Reporter module that has been enhanced to support the full MiFID II scope from client segmentation to best execution and beyond.

Never has the time been more opportune to book a slot to discuss your requirements with our team there.