State of the Market address

I’m sorry - last month’s blog should have said, “Oh yes and watch the Swiss”.

It’s been there all the time. The latest fashion trend toward wearable technology has made us forget what many of us have had on our wrist since we were young. A Swiss watch. A mark of reliability and accuracy. Your only responsibility is to wind it up and clean it once in a while. Then, it’ll never let you down.

Seemingly, its Central Bank doesn’t offer the same reassuring certainty. In days gone by, “all change” and "new big figure” used to boom out across FX dealing floors in response to the latest news story. They have increasingly been replaced with the “I should have gone to Specsavers” incredulous stare at the dealing screen.

Today, the ACT submits its consultation response to the Fair and Effective Markets review (FEMR). This has caused me to reflect what a fair and effective market is. This is a vast subject but it is a bold move to try to address it.

For me there are three important issues:

• Do all market participants/actors play by the same rules? And if not, is this transparent to all and should end-market users accept this?
• After all the post financial crisis regulatory changes come into effect will there still be liquid, competitive and transparent financial markets sufficient to handle all the business needs of the commercial and industrial businesses?
• Who ultimately will give us the confidence that the markets are fair and effective? But then again, where else would we go?

The ACT has an action-packed year ahead to help keep you up to speed with the latest developments. There is something there for you all and I'm delighted to see that in 2014 record numbers of you took advantage of our events, education, training and publications. As the only Chartered treasury body, it is of course, our job to keep our advanced treasury and finance professionals on top of their game.