Swiss Finance Council Annual Conference

William Wright, New Financial’s founder and managing director spoke at the Swiss Finance Council conference on European capital markets in Brussels, with this year’s edition focused on “Smarter Regulation for a Stronger Europe – Unlocking Growth through Integrated Capital Markets.

William contributed to a panel discussion on “Financing Europe through Integrated Capital Markets”. New Financial, and here are some of the main themes that emerged: 

• A growing recognition in Brussels and across the EU that the previous plan has not been working and that we need a better balance between what can be done at an EU level and what can only be done at a member state level; 

  
  

• The C in CMU: you can't have capital markets without capital, and pensions reform and retail participation are top of everyone's to do list;

  
  

• The renewed political commitment to SIU and simplification has in large part been a response to the US administration: commitment does not always translate into concrete action, but you can't have concrete action without it;

  
  

• There is scope for the EU to work more closely with the UK, Switzerland, and other like-minded countries in a way that full respects the single market.

With our thanks to the Swiss Finance Council for hosting such an interesting conference. If you’re interested in New Financial’s work on capital markets and our upcoming events programme, please do get in touch at: info@newfinancial.org