Roundtable Discussion with FCA on SME Research

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has asked Euro IRP for a roundtable discussion meeting on SME Research, and is open and keen to hear the views from Euro IRP members. The meeting will be held on Monday, 24 August starting at 2pm (London time), and should probably last for 60-90 minutes. It will, of course, be a virtual meeting – on Microsoft Teams. If you would like to join this meeting, please let Sue Westwood and/or Steve know, and we will provide the link to you.

This meeting has been initiated by the FCA, and will be hosted and led by them.  Euro IRP had one of our regular discussions with the FCA a few weeks ago, as part of our ongoing dialogue, and it’s a clear sign of how much the FCA sees Euro IRP as the voice of independent research providers, that they have now reached out again to us to directly collect views and feedback from Euro IRP member firms.  This invitation is open to all Euro IRP members, but clearly as the outline agenda shows below, the focus of the discussion is entirely on the question of SME research.  Euro IRP issued a Regulatory Update on 24 July outlining the European Commission’s proposals, with a further update in our July Bulletin published on 31 July to all our members.

Euro IRP will circulate a brief summary of the discussion after the meeting, for those members interested, who are unable to join on the day.

The agenda from the FCA is as follows –

• Introductions
• FCA overview of policy thinking on possible options to encourage SME research
• Discussion on Euro IRP and members’ views on the value of SME research
• Preliminary thoughts on the European Commission’s quick fix proposals for SME research
• AOB