What an experience it was to attend the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT) Annual Conference this week in the wonderful City of Liverpool. The evening dinner was hosted in Liverpool Cathedral, a truly impressive venue.
Winterflood Debt Capital Markets attended the conference to understand life in the shoes of company treasurers – from the challenges they face to the ecosystem they inhabit. There were many highlights of the event, but as champions of retail inclusion, the keynote speech from Nikhil Rathi, CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), at the end of day one really stood out to us.
Nikhil addressed the FCA’s key priorities, which included facilitating the issuance of low denomination bonds and realising the “significant benefits wider participation could bring.” Nikhil noted that for corporate treasurers this “could represent an attractive additional source of demand for UK corporate bonds” and that “broader individual participation in our capital markets, be that your employees or retail investors, should build stronger understanding of the importance of sensible risk-taking to grow our economy.”
We couldn’t agree more. For us, the proposals cannot be implemented soon enough, so it was heartening to hear Nikhil indicate that the final rules will “come out very soon” and that progress on implementation could be expected by the end of the year.
Bellwethers of the economy: the need to engage with corporate treasurers to shape our markets | FCA
If you would like to discuss the article or topic in more detail, please contact: Michael Smith, CFA, Debt Capital Markets at Winterflood Securities
