About our Special Events at the House of Commons
Our international project is very ambitious. We are very confident of its success in the UK because we have unusually high levels of connectivity and engagement with all the key stakeholders including regulators, politicians and the main financial services trade bodies and professional associations.
Of course, it is going to take time to build a similar supportive network in other countries but we have a plan to do that and our events outside the UK in 2019 and beyond are part of that plan.
We have run 3 special events in the UK at the House of Commons. They are being explained here to show that we have managed to convene successful meetings in the past:
- Our first was a very a successful Summit, held on 12th September 2016 at the House of Commons. It was Co-Chaired with Tom Tugendhat MBE MP (who is now the Chair of the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee). The Summit was all about the lack of transparency in financial services, and the main focus was the pensions market. We had speeches from all the relevent regulators who were represented at a senior level; plus numerous senior executives of financial services trade bodies/professional associations; plus progressive financial services thought leaders and so on. The event was very successful – it led to the opening of an enquiry by the Work and Pensions Select Committee on Pensions Costs Transparency (at which we gave evidence in person in September 2018, at the House of Commons). We had approximately 50 people in attendance; here is a picture of some of them; and beneath that some pictures of the inquiry it led to:
- Our second was on 26th June 2017, at the House of Commons. It was Co-Chaired with Lord Cromwell and was about the need for reforms in the banking sector. The Transparency Task Force’s Special Interest Group on Banking presented a White Paper to the Financial Conduct Authority about the need for the Banks to be more transparent on how they make money when customers fall into unapproved overdraft. Our thoughts were fed straight into the FCA’s policy consultation on banking reform. Here’s a picture of some of the people that were there, which includes the Financial Conduct Authority’s Head of Retail Banking, Karen McTeague:
- Our third was on 7th February 2018 at the House of Commons. It was Co-Chaired with Lord Cromwell, about the need for an All Party Parliamentary Group on “How can we mitigate the risk of another Global Financial Crisis?”. All the relevent regulators were represented including The Bank of England/Prudential Regulatory Authority, The Financial Conduct Authority, The Pensions Regulator; and so on. We also had several parliamentarians, some of whom spoke (Such as Sir Vince Cable). We are proud to explain that the APPG we campaigned to create is being launched. Lord Lindsay has assisted in writing the draft purpose statement for it: “The Purpose Statement for the new APPG on Financial Stability is: to respond to the universal shared interest in avoiding another Financial Crisis by providing a helpful forum for parliamentarians to work cross-party, developing fledgling policy initiatives to buttress the resilience of our financial system; supported by participation from industry, academics, experts, think tanks, civil society, campaign groups and regulators”. Here’s a picture of some of the people that were there:
