A meeting of minds

When the European industry met en masse in Milan late last month, there were two topics on delegates’ minds – Europe’s debt crisis and its regulators. While industry executives were clear that the debt crisis is the greater negative, it was the regulators that attracted the most attention. Between voluntary moratoriums, potentially expensive amends to the prospectus directive and the prospect of product banning, some glimpsed hope, however. JAC chair Tim Hailes went so far as to call the emergence of a pan-European regime the industry can ‘work with’ (p24). Allen & Overy partner Andrew Sulston showed what that might mean in practice during his session on forthcoming amendments to the prospectus directive, which he explores further in his Inside View column following Esma’s advice to the EC (p18). Such Euro-centrism is perhaps forgivable in the midst of an unprecedented set of debt and bank downgrades, whose most recent social symptoms are violent protest in Greece and what looks very much like a 1980s peace camp of anti-capitalist protestors at the foot of St Paul’s Cathedral near SRP’s offices. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, MPS Fixed Income’s Kevin Roche talks about growth in one of the only distributors locally to commit its own capital to deals (p22). As you help your businesses navigate these testing waters, don’t forget to let us know what works and what doesn’t and your thoughts on the best way forward for the industry as a whole.