09 Jun 2016
9-10 June 2016, OPEN, 20 Bank Plain, Norwich NR2 4SF
The CCP's 12th Annual Conference on Competition Policy in Financial Markets took place on the 9-10 June 2016 and was fittingly based at OPEN, the premises of the former regional headquarters of Barclays Bank until 2003.
With over 120 delegates in attendance, the programme for this year's event boasted a variety of perspectives with a strong policy focus from a truly multi-disciplinary line-up, with speakers from Law, Economics, Politics and Philosophy, and with a strong policy focus to provide a range of different perspectives.
With the promotion of competition being an increasingly key element of financial services regulation, this two day conference will focus on the challenges and complexities of formulating competition policy across a diverse set of financial services markets, from banking, pensions and insurance to derivatives and currency exchange. The challenges facing regulators and competition authorities in these markets are complicated by the existence of strong behavioural biases amongst market participants, an increasing reliance on digital systems of trade and information exchange, and systemic risks within this most important of sectors.
A full review of the conference can be found on our Storify .
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PRESENTATIONS [download available via presentation titles]
Session 1: Setting the Scene - The View from the Regulators
The UK financial regulators have new responsibilities in respect of competition. In this session, the scene will be set by some of those most closely involved in policy making and regulation in this area.
Mary Starks, Financial Conduct Authority:
Paul Fisher, Prudential Regulation Authority: “The PRA’s Competition Objective”
Hannah Nixon, Payment Systems Regulator: “Competition in the Payments Industry”
Session 2: Behavioural Economics and Competition in Financial Markets
The authorities are increasingly employing empirical techniques derived from behavioural economics to understand financial services markets better and to improve remedy design. In this session, we hear more about the regulators’ work in this area, as well as an academic perspective
Stefan Hunt, Financial Conduct Authority: “Using psychology to inform competition analysis”
Alasdair Smith, Competition and Markets Authority: “Behavioural Economics and the Recommendations of the CMA Retail Banking Market Investigation”
Bruce Lyons, School of Economics, University of East Anglia & CCP: “On the Appropriate use of Behavioural Economics in the Analysis of Competition in Financial Markets”
Session 3: Competition and Banking Stability
There is a well-recognised tension in banking between competition and stability, and much discussion about whether banks can be ‘too big to fail’. This session will look at this issue from three angles: political science, law and economics.
Scott James, Department of Political Economy, King’s College London: “The Bureaucratic Politics of the British Dilemma: Institutional Design and Principal-Agent Games in UK Banking Reform”
Albert Foer, American Antitrust Institute: “The American Antitrust Institute Looks at Competition in the Financial Markets”
Xavier Vives, IESE Business School: “Competition and Stability in Banking”
Session 4: Hot Topics in Financial Markets 1
This session dives into a couple of hot topics in financial market: high frequency trading and internal culture within banks.
Alasdair Brown, School of Economics, University of East Anglia: "Slowing Down Fast Traders: Evidence from the Betfair Speed Bump”
John Thanassoulis, Warwick Business School: “Ethical Standards and Cultural Assimilation in Financial Services”
Session 5: A Legal Perspective on Competition in Financial Markets
There is a growing understanding of, and focus on, antitrust law in financial markets, but how is this playing out and how does it interact with financial services law?
Richard Whish, QC (Hon), Emeritus Professor of Law at King’s College London: The Relationship Between Competition Law and Sector-Specific Regulation in the Financial Services Sector”
David Little, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP: “Antitrust in the Financial Sector: A Risk of Over-Enforcement”
Session 6: Hot Topics in Financial Markets 2
This session addresses further hot topics in financial markets, the use of big data in insurance markets and the role of regulation in mortgage markets.
Lee Callaghan, Aviva: "Big Data, Competition and Insurers: What's Here and What's Next?"
Maarten Pieter Schinkel, Faculty of Economics & Business, University of Amsterdam: "High Rates in the Low Countries: Competition Issues in the Dutch Mortgage Market"