对话EBC金融英国CEO：脱欧背景下英国监管的未来（上）
EBC Financial Group(UK)的现任首席执行官David Barrett曾在美国AIG、Nat West Bank现苏格兰皇家银行，里昂证券，荷兰银行，野村证券等国际金融集团任职超35年。熟悉各种金融产品，擅长于金融服务商业战略咨询，金融产品架构等。曾任AIG金融产品执行董事，负责与国际一级银行，大型对冲基金、家族办公室等合作。
以下David Barrett分享了在英国脱欧背景下英国监管的趋势，更严格和更高要求的监管体系对整个行业将产生深远而长久的影响。
Here in the UK the regulator is split into two main areas. We have the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) who regulate around 1,500 Banks, Building Societies, Credit Unions, Insurers, and the main Investment Firms. Alongside the PRA we have the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), it regulates the bulk of the remaining Financial Services Industry in the UK and is the body that Brokerage businesses interact with in the UK. Its main tasks are to ensure that the industry remains stable, enables healthy competition and probably most importantly it has a major role in protecting Consumers and Clients of the firms it overseas.
英国监管现在分成两大部分。有英国审慎管理局（PRA）监管着1500间银行，和主流投资公司。除了PRA，还有金融管理局（FCA），FCA监管着余下大部分金融服务业，也是英国经纪业务的监管主体。它的主要任务是确保行业稳定，维持良性竞争，最重要的是保护所监管公司海外客户的利益。
The UK’s FCA has long been seen as the benchmark for global regulation for Institutions and Clients alike, so changes that it makes to its oversight matter not only to companies that it regulates but also to the market in general. The last decade has seen many changes in how it operates and how companies that wish to be active in the UK must operate as well. Below we look at a few areas of interest to UK and overseas Brokers and Clients
英国FCA早已成为全球机构和客户监管的基准，所以它的改变不仅会对监管下的公司产生影响，对整个市场也有影响。过去十年间，FCA的运营方式发生了很多变化，很多想要在英国市场活跃的公司也相应改变。以下我们就来看下英国及海外经纪商和客户都感兴趣的几个话题。
Brexit: The reality is that the outcome and its effects on the market are still unclear. The UK left the EU on 31st Jan’20, it entered a transition Period that should have ended 31 Dec’20, but on 24 Dec’20 the UK and the EU agreed a Trade and Cooperation Agreement - but what does this mean for Companies and Clients operating in the UK and EEA?
首先是脱欧，脱欧对于市场的影响尚不明朗。英国在2020年1月31号正式执行脱欧程序，整个交接过程在2020年12月31号结束，而在同年平安夜，英国和欧盟签署了经贸合作协议，那么这将对英国和欧洲经济区运营的公司和客户意味着什么呢？
For Brokers, the main issue they have faced is the end of passporting their authorisations from the UK to the EEA or vis versa. As of 31st Dec,’20 all passporting was ended, in theory Firms needed to stop operating in other countries that they had been passporting into or they had to get local authorisation to be active there. The UK government agreed to allow EEA authorised firms to carry on operating in the UK under the scope of their local permissions (using a Temporary Permission Regime), unfortunately the EU did not do the same. This has led many high-profile brokers based in the UK to make changes to their business model.
这些经纪商将要面临的重要挑战是，从英国转移授权到欧洲经济区或者反之亦然。只要公司符合当地的要求（取得暂时性许可制度），英国政府就允许由欧盟授权的公司在英国运营。不过欧盟却没有相同的制度，这就导致很多知名英国经纪商不得不转变业务发展模式。
Firms simply said that its UK entity will no longer service EEA clients and they have not been alone. Larger Firms can establish EEA based Firms and direct the Clients there , others have set up new Firms within the EEA , to retain Clients.
很多公司表明了英国主体将不会再服务欧洲经济区客户。一些更大规模的公司则在欧洲经济区成立新公司，且服务当地的客户）, 而其他的则会在欧洲经济区成立新公司来留住客户.
It should be mentioned that some jurisdictions have become quite aggressive in the monitoring of who is marketing to which clients and from where – Germany and Italy’s regulators have been actively doing this.
值得一提的是一些司法机构在监管上更激进，他们会监督各个公司：在哪里，或者到底在针对哪些客户做市场推广—比如德国和意大利的监管机构就在积极推进这件事。
While the EEA, via ESMA have been instrumental in limiting Brokerage offerings to Retail Clients and will probably be happy to keep things as they are we suspect that the UK will want to, or even be forced to, take a more expansive approach. CySEC recently extended the deadline date for Firms to apply for Temporary Permission there, a further sign that they are happy to accommodate. The UK Government has already said that it sees the Financial Industries recovery as a main stay of future economic strength – it contributes approx. £130 billion to the UK economy and well over 1 million jobs and not just in London. In Edinburgh around 10% of all jobs are in the financial sector.
而在欧洲经济区，欧洲证券与市场管理局ESMA，正在进一步规范提供给零售客户的经纪业务，或者采取更有效政策。而塞浦路斯最近也推迟了公司申请临时许可的截止日期。英国政府已经表明金融行业的复苏是未来经济水平的强力支撑-因为金融行业对英国的经济贡献了大约一千三百亿英镑的价值并且提供了超过一百万个不只是在伦敦的工作职位。在爱丁堡大约百分之十的工作来自金融行业。
We believe that over time they will use the UK and FCA brand to attract Firms on a more favourable basis to be able to interact with the rest of the world and that the EU may well find itself too inward looking and becoming less attractive on the global stage.
我们相信随着时间的推移，英国会用自身和金融管理局的品牌，作为和世界其他地区交流的良好基础，同时欧盟也会发现其自身的封闭性在世界舞台变得较为缺少吸引力。
Future capital requirement changes for FCA Firms: One of the biggest changes that have been announced (but not yet implemented) will be the Change in minimum capital thresholds, consolidating the assessment, concentration risk and the ending of the Matched Principal exemption. All these changes are being driven by the EEA but despite Brexit the UK has agreed to go along with them, it could be argued that it makes any future passporting talks easier. As an overview the proposed changes mean that all EEA and UK firms will be looked at and classified in the same way, rather than the multi-level approach used in the UK now.
未来对于FCA监管下的公司资本要求：
最大的已知改变是保证金要求，综合评估的标准，资金集中的风险性控制和撮合委托交易的本金豁免制度。这些改变由欧洲经济区主导并且不受英国脱欧的影响，是否会利于未来的牌照申请事宜并不确定。但总体来讲，预计的这些改变会让欧洲经济区和英国的公司在一个体系内评估，而不是现在英国和欧洲所用的多重体系。
Adding to the capital burden for UK Firms will be consolidated assessment, that is any UK Firm that has EEA subsidiaries will have to report the above by including these Firms requirements along with the UK Firms in its numbers. Add this to a soft limit of 25% of the value of own funds used to support exposures and you can see the balance sheet burden growing.
对英国公司来说增加资本是综合评估的一部分，任何英国公司在欧洲经济区有附属公司的都要一并申报。其实就是变相要求自身资本的四分之一都要用支持交易，这使得公司资产和负债的压力变大。
Perhaps the biggest change will be for Matched Principal Brokers – under current FCA rules these Firms get a reduction of the capital needed for acting as a Principal to trades, STP brokers are only required to have Euro125k instead of Euro 730k. This will change, the EEA do not understand the concept of Matched Principal Brokers and do not agree with the capital discount. All these brokers will need to have this part of the calculation at Euro/GBP 750k going forward. The only good news here is that, although yet to be agreed in total it appears existing Firms will have a 5-year time frame to boost their balance sheet for this part of the equation.
而最大的改变要数撮合委托交易经纪商了，在现行的FCA准则下对这些交易主体的公司资本要求较低，比如STP经纪商只要求12.5万欧元而不是73万欧元。这种局面将会改变，欧洲经济区并不明确撮合委托经纪商的意义，也不同意资本水平的降低。这些经纪商之后就需要至少75万欧元或英镑的资本要求（但基本都是会维持在200万欧元）。唯一的好消息是，这些公司预计有五年的时间去提升资本负债表的数额以达到要求。
Make no mistake capital requirements and robustness of a regulated Firms balance sheet is only going to go up in the future, even offshore locations like the BVI are being pressured into making changes akin to those above and locations like St Vincent and Vanuatu may have resisted thus far but any type of company registering out there now struggles to get an international bank account because of it. Regulatory pressure is everywhere.
未来对受规管公司的资产负债表数值和最低资本要求只会越来越高，一些离岸的比如BVI离岸公司也开始被迫做出改变，比如圣文森特和瓦努阿图监管，原先接受大部分公司的注册，但是现在要求这些公司也要开设国际银行账户。监管的压力随处可见。
若想了解更多英国监管最新动向，欢迎在评论区提出你的问题， 笔者将在下一期作答。
脱欧背景下英国监管的未来（下）
Future restrictions for FCA Firms: Clearly the ESMA leverage rules are firmly in place now and we do not see many changes in the near term to the levels implemented. Indeed, we would argue that as the UK feels its way into a post Brexit world it may take the chance to differentiate itself on the global stage and raise these limits a tad from the levels we see now. We do not think they will go back to the previous ‘as you like’ environment but for given client types some more leverage maybe allowed at some point. The number of Clients that are moving to offshore and poorly regulated locations is a bad side effect of placing such harsh limits on all Retail Clients here, exporting the problem is not solving it.
未来对FCA监管下公司的限制：
欧洲证监会的杠杆要求正在被强力推行，而大家也看不到之后会有任何松动的可能。确实，英国脱欧后，英国的世界地位有所变动，而相比于现在水平，世界各国也许会对英国的发展有一定限制。但是我们并不认为，情况会回和之前一样相对宽松的监管环境，比如可以给到任何客户一个更高的杠杆条件。而对零售客户的苛刻条件会促使客户寻求较低保障的离岸监管，只会让问题更严重而没有真正解决问题。
Probably the most intriguing area for future regulation will be Crypto. Early steps from the FCA have seen them ban the most easily accessible (and sellable) product - CFD’s. We are sure the argument will go on for a long while yet but at some point, the global regulators are going to have to take a more joined up view.
未来监管方面最有趣的应该是数字货币。FCA在初步阶段禁止出售数字货币CFDs产品。我们确信，这种争论会持续很长一段时间，而全球监管者们的理念只会越来越成熟。
If you are a believer or not as an asset class Crypto has some very appealing attributes for all parts of the industry, Brokers filling a demand from Retail Clients is just a part of it. Recent moves are attributed to institutional participation and this could be the best hope believers have of the regulator being forced to work out a more joined-up approach. The institutional interest comes for two main reasons – the higher the price goes (and the less corelation it has to other assets) the more managers want to put it into the portfolio mix. BAFIN recently approved an ETF that is cleared via Xetra in Germany and the CFTC has been allowing Crypto derivatives for about 3 years in the US so a leading regulator like the FCA will find it hard to ignore the appeals for participation for ever we feel. If this becomes another case of regulation that drives Retail Clients offshore, then the argument about the effective protection given to them will continue.
不置可否，数字货币资产已经成为了行业内各个部分最有吸引力的了，比如经纪商们应零售交易者要求推出相关产品。这些主要是由于机构的参与，而大家也有期待，因此监管机构会推出更成熟的体系。机构的投资兴趣来源于两方面，一方面数字货币的价格越高，另一方面是更多基金经理会因为数字货币价格更高而把他们放到投资组合里。德国金管局最近批准了一个在德国交易所清算的交易所买卖基金，美国期货交易委员会也推出了一个三年的数字货币衍生品。所以作为先进的监管机构不可能忽视数字货币的优越性。也许这是零售客户选择离岸监管的另一个理由，而是否给到了他们有效保护的争论还会持续不断。
The other sector is risk taking by the institutions. Most of them care less about the underlying asset and more about the volatility, correlations, and pricing opportunities that a fast-moving price brings. Goldman recently announce a second move into trading and structuring in Crypto products and where they go others will follow – all looking for regulatory advice along the way。
另一方面是关于机构的风险承受能力。他们大部分不关心标的资产，而是更关心波动率，协相关性还有有价格快速波动产生的投机机会。高盛最近对交易和架构数字货币产品又近一步，而他们能走到什么程度是由监管机构决定的。
As an industry the continuing undertone of bad actors, money laundering and illicit financing using Crypto needs to be addressed. Regulators all over the world have used these problems as an effective stick to stop the market maturing in a way some users would like.
不得不说行业潜在的不利因素，比如通过数字货币洗钱，或者违法交易也值得强调。全球的监管机构都在用这个理由阻止市场按大家预期的进一步发展。
In the end, agree or not the belief in the product is real and growing, for now. A price drop, like the previous ones seen, would certainly do much damage to Crypto as an asset class as we have seen before but now, we have institutional recognition of its potential regulators will, we feel, be forced to act.
总之，一个价格回落，对数字货币资产的影响绝对会更大，这就引起了监管机构的重视和不得不相应作出行动。
Lastly some brief comments on Firm ownership: The majority of the global growth in brokerage business in the last decade has been driven by Asia. The US market is exceedingly difficult to break into due to large balance sheet requirements and regulatory oversight. Europe is a very mature market now and finding new clients is proving difficult in a very saturated environment. Asia has proved to be fertile ground for many but clearly has its own, local regulatory issues.
最后是关于企业所有权的一些看法：
过去10年大部分经纪业务的增长来源于亚洲。美国市场因为监察的严厉和较高的资本要求而很难进入。欧洲市场现在已经很成熟了，在饱和市场发掘新客户是很难的。亚洲地区肯定为发展提供沃土，但是不得不说也有其自己监管的各种各样的问题。
In the past Asia had been plagued by trading and investment scams, as the end Clients become more educated, they are looking for more legitimate Firms to deal with and many local operators have looked to set up FCA regulated firms to add credibility to their offering. The FCA took a while to get a grip of this but is now very much on the front foot when looking at new owners, products, and the client base mix of Firms that it regulates.
过去亚洲被交易和投资的骗局困扰，最终投资者们会被教育，寻求更合规的公司，所以很多当地的运营者会成立在英国监管下的公司来增加可信度。FCA在把控方面花了很长时间，不过现在在审视规管的申请者，产品和客户方面，依然在探索阶段。
Anyone looking to open a company that will need to be regulated in the UK will face an extremely strict process. The Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) will need to have a solid background in the industry, a robust business plan and clear reasons for wanting to open a UK based Firm. The source of wealth is a major concern to the FCA as well, previous applicants that have been a cover for illegitimate funding are excluded early in the process, the FCA now use local contacts and intelligence to investigate information given in applications.
任何一家想要获得英国监管的公司将接受最严格的审核。法人必须在行业要很有经验，拥有强有力的商业计划和一个在英国开公司的明确理由。资金来源也是FCA关心的另一个问题，之前那些涉及非法来源的申请者都被拒绝，FCA现在会利用一切当地资源来调查申请者提供的信息，
They will not allow firms to open to simply provide a platform for Asian clients. As discussed above capital requirements and financial robustness of the Firm have risen (and will continue to do so) and they will insist on local officers to have total day to day control of the Firms activities. Previous applicants have used good local candidates for the applications and upon registration removed and replaced them with less qualified officers – the FCA will revoke registration now if they see this.
FCA不允许公司开立平台只是为了亚洲客户。现在FCA执行的是对公司资本实力和稳定性的严格要求（并且会一直延续），并且他们会要求当地团队时时严格管理公司的任何举动。之前的申请者如果只是在申请时候聘用最棒的团队，而在申请成功后就撤出合资格的团队，那么FCA会因此撤销授权。
The point to take away from this is that a Firm, regulated by the FCA now, has no choice but to have an owner and officers of the highest standard, it must have the financial resources needed to operate a Firm correctly and it will receive a huge amount of regular scrutiny from the FCA to make sure it continues to comply with the rules. Being regulated in the UK is not an easy thing to attain, not an easy thing to keep and not an easy thing abuse.
结语：受FCA监管的公司目前除了以最高标准执行合规准则之外没有选择，必须具备优秀的运营团队以及资本实力，同时也要接受FCA的一系列审查以确保他们一直符合规管要求。获得将英国监管越来越困难，也不是一件容易维持的事情了。
若想了解更多英国监管最新动向，欢迎在评论区提出你的问题， 笔者将在下一期作答。