Change in financial sector conduct?

This event will explore ‘Critical Discussions and Proposal on Law, Regulation and Enforcement’

Speakers

• Mr Ned Beale (Trowers & Hamlins)
• Professor Iain MacNeil (University of Glasgow)
• Mr Richard Samuel (3 Hare Court)

Chair

Professor Iris H-Y Chiu (UCL Laws)

About this event

Banks have, in the last 5 years, been called to account for series of misconduct that have been carried out over long periods as well as more recent misconduct in consumer mis-selling, benchmark manipulation and generally poor treatment of customers. The banker-customer relationship seems to have sunk to a historically low point. This Panel discusses different perspectives in addressing this ‘low point’, from recent financial regulation reforms that are aimed at changing behaviour and culture in banks to access to justice for financial consumers.

Topics that will be covered

• Access to financial justice: lessons learned from the recent upsurge in financial services litigation (Mr Ned Beale)
• Individual accountability – from rhetoric and rules to action (Professor Iain MacNeil)
• A Financial Services Tribunal: empowering consumers as agents of culture change in banks (Mr Richard Samuel)

About the speakers

Ned Beale is a partner at Trowers & Hamlins LLP, London.  Trowers is a full service law firm particularly known for its work on behalf of government authorities and housing associations and across the regeneration, development and commercial property sectors.

Ned is a member of Trowers’ litigation team, which are described by The Legal 500 as a “high quality practice”.  Ned is personally recommended by The Legal 500 for International Arbitration, where clients have described him as “first-rate”, and for Commercial Litigation, where he is noted as being “excellent”.  He also advises members of the public as an honorary legal adviser at Camden Citizens Advice.

A significant portion of Ned’s work is financial services litigation, including acting on behalf of financial institutions, publicly funded entities, corporates and individual consumers.   That includes disputes in relation to long term lending and deposit agreements and structured finance and hedging products, both internationally and across the UK commercial and consumer lending markets.

Iain MacNeil is the Head of the School of Law at the University of Glasgow. He joined the School in 2003 and was appointed to the Alexander Stone Chair of Commercial Law in 2005.  He is a graduate of the Universities of Glasgow (LLB) and Edinburgh (PhD).  Iain’s early career was as an investment analyst in the City of London during the 1980s, covering the insurance sector. He took up his first academic appointment at the University of Aberdeen in 1993 following completion of his PhD on The Legal Framework for the EU Single Market in Insurance.

Iain’s primary interest and expertise now lies in corporate governance and financial regulation. He has published widely and in particular he has explored the interaction between public and private law in this sphere as well as the influence of international standards. His current research is focused on legal, regulatory and ethical responses to misconduct in financial markets.

In 2012 Iain served as a special adviser to the House of Lords EU Committee for their investigation into MiFID II. In 2014 he served as a member of the UK Research Evaluation Framework (REF) Panel for Law.  He is currently Senior Adviser on a DG FISMA commissioned project examining national compliance with EU financial sector Directives.

Richard Samuel was called to the bar in 1996 and currently practices at 3 Hare Court, specialising in financial and commercial litigation and arbitration. He began his career in the criminal courts, moved into employment and then corporate disputes. He is now regularly instructed on substantial commercial and financial disputes and had appeared in all senior courts including the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council. He has recent publications in the Capital Markets Law Journal and the Financial Times on his proposal of effectively resolving financial disputes and restoring a culture of faith in the banking system. On May 25, 2016 he presented the proposal at Westminster to an All Party Parliamentary Group, including a wide audience of industry stakeholders. He has been asked to speak on the subject internationally.

Richard is a senior advocacy trainer with the Middle Temple and co-founder of the International Advocacy Academy (IAA), an organisation which brings together a distinguished group of senior barristers, QCs and retired judges to provide specialist arbitration advocacy training to lawyers and arbitrators around the world.