Fortnightly bulletin 6th december 2016

WMA Bulletin 6th December 2016 WMA Bulletin is a fortnightly snapshot delivering the latest news and current affairs from within the wealth management industry and WMA.

What's going on in our industry?

FinTech Week 2017 Members may be interested to know that the FinTech Week dates are 7th to 14th July 2017. WMA is pleased to be sponsoring this event which is a series of conferences, workshops, hackathons, meetups and networking. Each day has a focus on a different topic.

The main conference/exhibition takes place at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, but other events take place across the City of London, Canary Wharf & “Tech City".

More info can be found here. Members are entitled to a 20% discount using this code WMA1.

Wealth Management Report in The Sunday Times WMA is pleased to announce a media partnership with Raconteur on their Wealth Management report to be published in The Sunday Times newspaper on the 12th of February 2017. Together we are working to create a report of real authority for both private clients with money to invest and wealth managers The 8-page broadsheet report will be published directly next to the Money section of The Sunday Times, reaching 1.59 million readers, with the highest proportion of ABC1 readers of any other newspaper.

The report will be 70% independent editorial written by the UK’s leading finance journalists and the other 30% is reserved for commercial spaces for 5-7 leading brands. Discounted commercial options are available to all WMA members.

For further details about the report, please contact: Misha Jessel-Kenyon, Publishing Manager at Raconteur (+44 (0)208 616 7389) who will be able to send you more information including the editorial synopsis, readerships statistics and options for commercial involvement.

Industry Consultation Paper: Asset Transfers and Re-registrations The Asset Transfers and Re-registrations Industry initiative was established following discussions with the FCA in February 2016, and includes members of the ABI, AMPS, APFA, BBA, IA, TISA, UKPG and WMA. The Industry Group has now reported back to the FCA with proposals to improve transfers and reregistrations, and a formal industry consultation process was launched on Monday, 5 December 2016 with feedback requested by 31 January 2017. The consultation paper can be accessed here.

WMA would encourage its members to respond to this consultation, particularly where member firms do not agree with what is proposed. If firms prefer to route their responses via WMA feel free to send it to Andy Thompson and we will ensure that it is anonymised before being passed to the central point.

If anyone has any queries please contact Andy Thompson.

What is WMA up to?

De-materialisation of Share Certificates On 23rd November WMA and 2 member firms held a conference call with the official at the Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) responsible for the forthcoming consultation in respect of dematerialisation of share certificates. The call focused on issues relating to liability and security and BEIS will seek to engage with WMA and its member firms in Q1 2017 and in advance of the publication of the proposed consultation paper.

FCA - MIFID II Roundtable On 22nd November, WMA met with the FCA, other trade associations and member firms to address the wholesale issues covered in Consultation Paper 16/29.

The Panama Papers and the Joint International Task Force for Shared Intelligence and Collaboration On 24th November, WMA held a conference call with 3 officials from HMRC who are coordinating the work of the Joint International Task Force for Shared Intelligence and Collaboration (JITSIC), an initiative of the OECD’s Forum on Tax Administration, which is looking at how to co-operate and share information following the release of the Panama Papers data.

HMRC are keen to broaden their understanding as to how potential clients get access to corporate service providers like Mossack Fonseca. HMRC are not looking for individual names or at naming particular intermediaries, but rather at exploring the process as to how people get into the type of arrangements revealed in the Panama Papers.

A meeting is taking place on 6th December with WMA member firms and HMRC officials and a follow up note will be in the next WMA Update.

WMA Board and CEO Lunch with Andrew Bailey, FCA The WMA Board and CEO's of some member firms recently attended a lunch with FCA's Chief Executive, Andrew Bailey and Megan Butler, their Director of Supervision – Investment, Wholesale and Specialists.

A wide range of issues was discussed including CASS and Unbreakable Term Deposits (a survey has gone out to gather information for the FCA), the FCA Mission and other Regulatory Issues.

Andrew made it clear that WMA need to continue and increase our engagement with FCA, particularly as they review their rulebook, to ensure the needs of our member firms are accounted for.

What's coming up in our industry?

Asset Transfers and Re-registrations Stakeholder Event: 12th December 2016 The article earlier in this Bulletin provides a link to the industry consultation on asset transfers and reregistrations.

The Stakeholder Event will give attendees the opportunity to hear directly about the rationale behind the proposals, and will enable stakeholders to seek any clarification of the content of the consultation paper. The event will take place on 12th December between 9:30 and 12 o’clock at the ABI Offices, 8th Floor, One America Square, 17 Crosswall, London EC3N 2LB. WMA members can register at this free event here.

UK Fund Trading Settlement Initiative Open Forum On 8th December Hogan Lovells International LLP will host an Open Forum at their offices in Atlantic House, Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2FG providing an update on the progress of the UK Fund Trading and Settlement (FTS) initiative followed by an open discussion on the key findings. The session will run from 11:30 to 13:30.

The FTS was launched in April this year to review the way mutual funds are traded and settled and the services that support this. It involves five major industry associations, including the WMA. WMA member firms are welcome to nominate one delegate to attend the meeting with places being allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.

Please email Dee Wastnedge at TISA with the name and contact details of your nominated representative.

What's coming up in WMA? Introducing The MSCI WMA Private Investor Index Series Webinar We would like to invite you to the introductory WMA MSCI Private Investor Index Series webinar on Wednesday 14th December, 14:00-15:00.

The MSCI version of this long-standing index series officially will become the sole indices endorsed and sanctioned by the WMA effective 1st March 2017, however the indices and MSCI data modules are available before this date - for more information, visit MSCI at www.msci.com.

Webinar agenda: 14:00 – 14:10 - Welcome & Intro to the Switch to MSCI, Jason Baxter, WMA 14:10 – 14:40 - Overview of the New Index Series, sub-indices and data modules, Steve Kowal, MSCI 14:40 – 14:50 - Overview of the Markit iBoxx Fixed Income indices included in the MSCI WMA Series, Sebastian Meyer, Markit 14:50 - Q&As and Finish Book your place today

Offers to Members We have launched an 'offers for members' area on our website. This will be updated as exclusive new offers for our members become available and we would encourage members to visit this page on a regular basis.

WMA Dublin Briefing 7th December 2016 Join us at the upcoming WMA Dublin Briefing. The event is free to members and entitles attendees to 1.5 hours of CPD. Briefings are a great opportunity for firms to discuss with WMA any issues affecting them, network with industry peers and receive valuable information on industry developments.

Book your place online today!

WMA CPD Seminar- ICAAP Our next upcoming CPD seminar on 24th January 2017 will be hosted in the WMA offices by David Yim, Partner at KPMG LLP. David will outline the key findings from the KPMG Risk and ICAAP benchmarking Survey 2016 as well as providing further feedback on the common mistakes and emerging issues that he has identified in assisting firms prepare their ICAAP or respond to feedback from the FCA. Places are limited, click here to reserve your place.