Following the Rules

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.

Nikhil Rathi’s 23-year career includes several senior roles within previous Labour, Conservative and coalition governments’ Treasury departments and just under five years as chief executive of the London Stock Exchange plc.  

Since 2020, he has overseen regulation of the UK financial services sector as CEO of the FCA. 

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.

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.

Dr. Wieke Scholten is a social and organisational psychologist with a particular focus on the financial services sector. Her 21-year career includes five years as a senior supervisor of behaviour and culture at the Dutch prudential regulator DNB and two years as head of behavioural risk at NatWest. 

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. 

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

Today’s guests outline where financial institutions are going wrong in their efforts to address their cultural shortcomings.

They discuss the practical steps that those managing finance workers can take to meaningfully improve the culture within their organisations and they outline how regulators could best support their efforts.

They also explain how such changes, and the cultural improvements deriving from them, can ultimately add value to the businesses embracing them.

Britt Johnston’s 30-year career includes 26 years in various senior roles on bank trading floors. In 2020, she took on responsibility for the UK conduct and culture programme at Natixis before being promoted in 2022 to oversee the investment bank’s conduct and culture initiatives in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Tina Mavraki’s 26-year career includes stints at banking giants Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. Since 2018, she has worked as a portfolio non-executive board director and strategic adviser for several financial institutions and research groups including Cambridge University’s Centre for Climate Engagement.

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FURTHER READING:

Leadership insight: corporate culture | Cambridge University’s Centre for Climate Engagement

Five Truths (and a Lie) About Corporate Transformation | BCG

Risk Cultures and Banking: Where next? | ACCA

Bank climate commitments are not effective - Green Central Banking | ECB report

Today’s guest outlines how she expects regulators to push financial institutions to keep better track of their employees’ behaviour.

She discusses how finance firms should be modernising their staff surveillance programmes in response to this regulatory focus and explains how those tasked with monitoring finance workers’ behaviour can best encourage their bosses to spend the money required to ensure such changes are successful.

She also details what skills those working in financial institutions’ surveillance functions must develop to stay relevant amidst this growing pressure to innovate.

And she should know. Because Emily Wright’s 25-year career includes stints overseeing the compliance functions and surveillance programmes in Asia Pacific for financial services giants Standard Chartered, JP Morgan and ICAP. Since 2023, she has advised financial institutions on their compliance and conduct as an independent consultant.

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

Today’s guest discusses how financial institutions are changing their communications surveillance programmes in response to an increasing regulatory focus on this space.

He details how generative AI is transforming both communications surveillance technology and the role of the professionals tasked with using such tools.

He also outlines how finance bosses and compliance teams can develop best-in-class surveillance processes.

Brandon Carl is executive vice president for AI and product strategy at Smarsh.

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Podcast notes

Smarsh's off-channel e-book: https://www.smarsh.com/off-channel-communications-emerging-best-practices

Today’s guest discusses how he expects the Labour administration will prioritise a long list of pending financial services reforms inherited from the previous government.

He explains how such a reform programme could be interpreted to provide City bosses with the clarity they seek as to how the government will address perceived tensions between its planned pro-growth agenda and its commitments to better protect consumers.

And he outlines what upcoming and current pain points regulators and lawmakers must work to address now to avoid the risk of the UK falling behind.

Conor Sewell brings a useful perspective to all these topics having worked as an analyst for the Bank of England's Capital Markets Division, and as Senior Policy Advisor for the Treasury’s Financial Services Group. Since 2023, he has advised some of the world’s biggest financial services companies on policy, and politics as a director at political advisory group Forefront Advisers.

Today’s guest outlines what’s to come in a new package of tougher global capital requirements known as Basel 3.1. He explains how banks can best prepare for the reforms and discusses the prospects of a delay to their implementation in the UK.

He outlines how the Prudential Regulation Authority is responding to a new obligation to consider the impact of their activities on the UK’s growth and competitiveness.

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Links of note:

Monsters in the deep? − a speech by Jonathan Hall, the Bank of England's external member of the Financial Policy Committee, referenced by Sam Woods around 32 mins into the episode.

The 'Carrington Event' − referenced by Sam Woods 40 mins into the episode.