In the UK, 2010 saw the end of a 13-year reign by the Labour party and the formation of the first coalition government since the Second World War, which is also, incidentally, the first ever Liberal Democrat and Conservative party coalition.
2010 also saw the near collapse of one of the world’s biggest companies, BP, after the explosion of its Deepwater Horizon oil rig which killed 11 people and spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Financial bailouts have also been a theme, with Greece then Ireland having to take inordinately large loans from the EU/IMF, while any one of the other so-called PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) have been rumoured to be next.
A less headline-grabbing theme this year however, has been the steady tightening of financial regulation. In just-about every jurisdiction there have been new laws introduced, many, rightly or wrongly, in a bid to remedy the mistakes of the financial crisis.
In the UK, there has been a complete overhaul of the financial regulatory system, with the FSA effectively having been scrapped and more power handed to the central bank, the Bank of England.
Europe is also about to witness the introduction of one of the widest sweeping fund management directives in decades, the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive. The directive, which is due for implementation from 2013, was passed in direct response to the financial crisis, with its original aim having been to ensure “short-term shareholders” (i.e. hedge funds) are not able to bring about the collapse of large organisations – such as Lehman Brothers.
The directive has been hugely controversial, with many arguing it reaches it too far (the final scope included property funds) and others insisting it did not go far enough. Despite some concessions this is still a weighty piece of European legislation.
In Hong Kong, the Securities and Futures Commission has continued to build on measures it introduced in the wake of the Lehman mini-bond crisis in 2008, with the introduction of yet more consumer-focused measures this year.
Meanwhile, the UAE has been less busy on the regulation front, having passed a raft of measures after the Dubai World fiasco shook global markets last year.
However, a couple of new measures have crept in, including new restrictions on the promotion of financial products in the Dubai International Finance Centre and a deal the DFSA signed to improve oversight of insurance companies operating in multiple jurisdictions.
