WMA Bulletin 22nd March 2016
Need to Know What's going on in our industry? Osborne’s budget to ‘put the next generation first’ and ‘get
Meeting with Director of
investors investing'
Supervision and Executive
As a leading advocate for establishing a culture of investment, WMA welcomed the following announcements in the recent Budget: - a ‘Lifetime ISA’ which will enable those under 40 to save up to £4000 a year, with the Government contributing £1 for every £4 put away by investors - a further increase of the current ISA limit from £15250 to £20000, and - a cut in Capital Gains Tax from 28% to 20% (18% to 10% for basic rate taxpayers) Read our full WMA press release here.
FATCA Helpline for Financial Institutions
Board Member at FCA We recently met Megan Butler, Director of Supervision – Investment, Wholesale and Specialists and Executive Board Member at FCA to discuss a range of issues impacting on our sector and the relationship between WMA and FCA. The meeting was exceedingly helpful. Megan was well aware of the key issues our firms face. Her background is in our sector; she worked at the London Stock Exchange’s legal department at the beginning of her regulatory career.
CASS – Diversification of client money
The WMA together with two member
WMA have been asked by HMRC to
firms, attended a meeting at FCA with
remind member firms that their
other trade associations and firms, to
Automatic Exchange of Information
provide feedback on current market
(AEOI) telephone number - 03000
conditions and the difficulties firms are
576748 – was created to help with AEOI
experiencing in diversifying where they
(FATCA and CRS) returns for Financial
hold client money. The key messages
Institutions and not customers of FIs.
given to FCA were common across all
HMRC have had an increasing number of
trade associations.
instances of FIs giving out the contact
The FCA will be digesting the feedback
details to their customers for help –
they have been given and possibly
including on mass mailings in the tens of
undertaking further changes. We will
thousands - preventing FIs from getting
await FCA’s response in due course but
through because the line is being used
even if the FCA decided to amend the
by their customers.
rules we would estimate (guess?) that
If customers need help with tax residence
any change would not take place before
issues they can be referred to the HMRC
the end of the year at the earliest.
website.
CASS Special Administration Regime We met with the FCA and two member firms who have accepted clients assets and client money from Special Administrators to discuss issues arising from DP16/2: CASS 7A and the Special Administration Regime Review. FCA appreciated the opportunity get feedback on the content of the Discussion Paper from firms who have first-hand experience of the issue.
What's WMA up to? WMA Brexit Roundtable The WMA held an in-house discussion with member firms on the hot topic of Brexit on 17th March. We will report the outcome and publish the summary anonymised results in a position paper. This will partly respond to the Treasury Select Committee suggestion for some kind of contingency thinking about what would happen in our sector in the event of an ‘out’ vote on 23rd June. But it will also provide some guidance to firms on what they may have to think about regarding their operations and planning should this occur.
EU Green Paper on Retail
De-materialisation of share
Financial Services
certificates
WMA have responded to the European
The WMA Retail Markets Committee had
Commission Green Paper on "retail
a very useful discussion on 15th March
financial services: better products, more
with Claire Hardgrave, the official with
choice, and greater opportunities for
policy responsibility for Government
consumers and businesses". We have
plans to remove share certificates.
drawn special attention to the need to
Claire confirmed that the consultation
change the investment culture in the EU,
would be published in October and whilst
to encourage participation by the retail
at this stage no one model was favoured,
sector in the capital markets, to improve
the plan is to have the relevant
advice and intermediation for this, to
legislation in place by the end of 2017
support better information and to back
with a 2-year implementation time-frame.
the development of the digital economy to increase market access and fulfil the
Millennial Forum 2nd Workshop
jobs and growth agenda. With the second workshop of the WMA
Client Experience
Millennial Forum fast approaching in April our participants have been meeting
The WMA recently hosted an Insight
to discuss their given topics and develop
series on the topic of Client Experience
their ideas. As part of the second
and what the wealth management
workshop the Millennials have nominated
industry are doing to improve the client
subject matter experts who they will meet
experience for the end investor. The
with to further research their concepts
panel, chaired by Patrick Morse from
and develop their final presentations on
Coutts, was made up from a range of
8th June. The Forum has been incredibly
industry experts including Roger Lawson
well received and all participants are
(ShareSoc), Rod Bryson (Cap
actively engaged in what is proving to be
Gemini), Mike Morrison (AJ Bell), Nick
a very topical issue for the industry as a
Watts (Fidelity) and David Barks
whole.
(WealthX) who debated the challenges of effectively measuring client experience and how to ensure that the end users’ experience remains firmly in mind.
Coming Up What's coming up in our industry? London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Deutsche Borse Merger Following confirmation on 16th March 2016 that London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Borse have agreed to merge, WMA are meeting LSE officials on 23rd March 2016 to better understand the implications of the merger for WMA members and their clients. The Retail Service Provider model, the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), and greater retail participation in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) will all be high on the WMA agenda for discussion.
Treasury and ISAs for life We will be working with HM Treasury on building the detail of the new Lifetime ISA and have been invited to a meeting with Treasury officials on 1st April. They will make a presentation on the current position, to be followed by discussion of specific aspects. The aim is to work with us and other industry representatives so the Government can introduce relevant legislation this autumn, in time for the new product to start in April 2017.
Prospectus Regulation The FCA has called a series of meetings on 6th and 7th April to examine the SME, equity, and bond aspects of the draft Prospectus Regulation with a view to assessing how Level 2 aspects should be handled. The meetings will include HM Treasury and ensure that the industry have a clear input into how the UK will influence Level 2 discussions in ESMA, and also ongoing Level 1 discussions in the Council. The WMA will attend all three sessions and will report on the outcome in a future WMA Bulletin.
What's coming up in WMA? Trilogues
Bear markets, Brexit, regulation, client needs. What’s
WMA will be responding by 31st March to the Trilogues Consultation published earlier this year by the EU Ombudsman.
keeping you awake at night in 2016?
Drafting is well under way and we will report the outcome in the next Bulletin.
Join us on 28th April at our hugely popular Investment Conference which
Benchmarks On 31st March the WMA will be submitting a response to the ESMA Discussion Paper on the EU's Benchmarks legislation, which asks what sort of form and content the Level 2 material should have in order to give proper shape to the Level 1 text and the regulatory intentions of the EU authorities. We will inform readers of the key elements of our output in the next WMA Bulletin.
CP on Transaction Reporting under MiFIR
will be addressing the business issues that are keeping you awake at night. Held in London in conjunction with Cass Business School, the all day event will provide delegates with the opportunity to hear from some of the industry’s top economists, as well as presentations covering topics ranging from investing in frontier markets to alternative investments. Furthermore, it will tackle subjects of direct interest and relevance to our member firms’ front office professionals including portfolio theory, sequencing risk and scenario planning The Investment conference is selling out fast, with over 100 people attending. Book online now to secure your place.
On 23rd March WMA will be submitting a response to the European Securities and
WMA on LinkedIn and Twitter
Markets Authority (ESMA) consultation on Transaction Reporting, Reference Data, Order Record Keeping and Clock Synchronisation under MiFIR.
Keep up to date with all the latest WMA news by following us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
For those wishing to read thee response will be put on the Consultation Response section of our website.
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For more information on many of the articles visit the WMA Members Area of our website or contact the relevant WMA Staff Member.