MyComplianceOffice Blog

Southeast Asia is a region of diverse cultures, religions, and political frameworks that holds a unique growth opportunity. Asia’s consumer markets are rapidly growing and diversifying. McKinsey Global Institute research found that consumers in Asia are now reaching higher tiers of the income pyramid. At the same time, diverse cohorts are developing within key cities. New behaviours, demographics, and growth angles and being created by emerging segments such as Gen Z gamers, digital natives, and older generations moving online, to name a few.

I recently had the privilege of speaking on the sessionRegTech Adoption – The Way Forward at the 2022 ASIFMA Compliance Asia Conference as part of a panel of industry experts. The conference featured three half-days of info-packed sessions that covered the latest compliance issues and emerging regulatory trends. 

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has released its three-year strategy for 2022-2025. The document sets out the FCA’s areas of focus for the next few years along with the goals of preventing serious harm, setting higher standards and promoting competition.

 What does compliance need to know about the regulator’s updated longer term plans?

Regulated digital assets might sound like an oxymoron given that cryptocurrency was developed as an anti-establishment alternative to conventional finance. However, growing use of such assets has encouraged regulators across the world to take a closer look at this developing asset class.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has clearly set expectations to ensure that asset managers conduct their business with due skill, care and diligence and that they manage conflicts of interest, between the firm or its employees and its customers or between its customers, fairly. A European asset management firm was recently fined £9.1mn by the FCA for failure to adhere to these principles and effectively manage conflicts of interest.