As of 1 January 2016, Wim Kuijken will be appointed as independent Chairman of the Board of The Hague Security Delta Foundation. He will succeed Jozias van Aartsen, Mayor of The Hague. This fits the new governance of HSD and the further establishment of HSD as national security cluster with three important regions: Brabant, Twente and The Hague. The appointment marks the next phase in the development of HSD.

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Intelligent Partnership have found that the Alternative Finance industry needs to do much more to reach out to advisers. Although 73% of the Alternative Finance providers IP surveyed stated that they were either already marketing to financial advisers, or planned to do so in the future, the vast majority of advisers were still unaware of key industry developments. Only 7% of advisers surveyed realised that Alternative Finance is now regulated by the FCA, and only 13% were aware that some platforms used contingency funds to protect investors from losses. Continue reading…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently published its first consultation paper on the implementation of the new European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) in the UK. MiFID was originally introduced in 2007 and the revised regime aims to strengthen investor protection, increase market resilience, reduce systemic risks and increase the overall efficiency and transparency of financial markets.
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Wealth managers and private banks have made progress in demonstrating the suitability of their clients’ portfolios, a thematic review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has found. However, some firms need to make substantial improvements in client information practices as well as ensuring the portfolios they manage truly reflect the needs and risk appetite of their customers. The FCA will be following up on these issues with these firms.
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Legislation that would entitle commercial policyholders to damages for the late payment of claims has passed a major legislative hurdle. The Enterprise Bill received its second reading in the House of Lords, despite some vocal opposition. Airmic CEO John Hurrell welcomed the measure’s progress, which followed an intervention by the specialist insurance consultancy Mactavish.

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Michel van Hulten

I respond to the call to help disseminate this message as widely as possible during the few days preceding the Climate Change Conference in Paris. Everyone should be aware of the fact that the threat to the global climate is also influenced by the success or failure of our fight against corruption. Powerful lobby groups are attempting to manipulate legislation, governments and international organisations for their own ends and are thus compromising safety and our welfare.

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The euro area financial system has been resilient through occasional bouts of financial market volatility in the second half of the year, according to the ECB’s latest Financial Stability Review. Continue reading…

The ECB and the PBC have successfully completed tests of their existing bilateral currency swap arrangement. From a Eurosystem perspective, the arrangement serves as a backstop facility to address sudden and temporary disruptions in the renminbi market due to liquidity shortages in euro area banks. Liquidity providing arrangements contribute to global financial stability and the arrangement with the PBC is a recognition of the rapidly growing bilateral trade and investment between the euro area and China.
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today fined Barclays Bank (Barclays) £72,069,400 for failing to minimise the risk that it may be used to facilitate financial crime. The failings relate to a £1.88 billion pound transaction (Transaction) that Barclays arranged and executed in 2011 and 2012 for a number of ultra-high-net-worth clients. The clients involved were politically exposed persons (PEPs) and should therefore have been subject to enhanced levels of due diligence and monitoring by Barclays.

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The new €20, the third in the Europa series, enters into circulation today. It has a refreshed look and more vibrant colours, and includes a new kind of security feature: a “portrait window” near the top of the hologram stripe which becomes transparent when seen against the light. The window reveals a portrait of Europa, a figure from Greek mythology, which is visible on both sides of the note. The same portrait is also visible in the watermark, alongside an emerald number which displays an effect of the light moving up and down when the note is tilted – exactly like in the €5 and €10 of the Europa series.
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