logo New Financial
baseline New Financial

Unlocking capital markets

We believe Europe needs bigger and better capital markets to kickstart its recovery – and that this represents a huge opportunity for the industry and its customers to rethink capital markets.

Report – The social and economic value of finance

December 2023 • Unlocking capital marketsby William Wright, Sheenam Singhal, Seethal Kumar & Katharina Ritter

The banking, insurance, and capital markets industry has a vital role to play in driving long-term investment across the UK – but it needs to make a better and more concrete case for the value of what it does. This report drills down behind the headline numbers to highlight the social and economic value of one financial services company at a regional level and the impact it has on people’s everyday lives in every corner of the country.

» Read more

Paper – A £10bn short in the arm for UK equities?

November 2023 • Unlocking capital marketsby William Wright

This short paper outlines how the UK could unlock an extra £10bn a year of investment into UK equities by reforming the ISA regime to require half of all new investments to be invested in UK equities, and raising the ISA allowance to £25,000 in line with inflation. This would help rebuild a pool of ‘natural buyers’ for UK equities, drive a renewed culture of investment and increase retail participation, and help crowd-in additional investment.

» Read more

ESMA’s key priorities for the year ahead with Verena Ross, chair of ESMA

December 2022 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

Verena will discuss some of ESMA’s key priorities for the year ahead, including: • The development of EU capital markets and CMU • Widening retail participation and protecting investors • ESG and sustainability • Post-Brexit supervisory cooperation and divergence • Digitisation, data, and technology About Verena Ross: Verena has been Chair of ESMA since November […]

» Read more

A reality check on Big Bang 2.0

October 2022 • Event • Capital marketsby New Financial

A small and informal policy workshop to discuss the findings in our paper on ‘A reality check on Big Bang 2.0.’ The paper frames what we expect to be some of the main announcements in the government’s reform plans for banking and finance in the political context of the last few weeks. We’re hosting two virtual […]

» Read more

Crises, capital markets & financial stability with Juan Solé, Senior London representative, IMF

March 2022 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

We’re delighted to welcome Juan back for a third time, and he will also be discussing the IMF’s latest deep dive on the post-Covid and post-Brexit outlook for the UK financial system. This event will be an opportunity to discuss some of the key issues around financial stability from a policy, capital markets and macro […]

» Read more

‘Investment Unleashed’ with Pension Insurance Corporation

February 2022 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

A private in-person event to discuss the latest report from Pension Insurance Corporation ‘Investment Unleashed’ as part of the Purpose of Finance initiative. The report analyses the concrete benefits to the economy and to individuals of the potential increase in long-term investment that could be unlocked from the reform of Solvency II. This will be […]

» Read more

The ‘UK Secondary Capital Raising Review’ with Mark Austin

December 2021 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

The 2022 New Financial event programme commences with the opportunity for different constituencies in the capital markets to share their views on the challenges and opportunities of reforming the process for capital raising by companies that are already listed on UK markets. We are delighted to host Mark Austin, a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer […]

» Read more

The future of European stock exchanges

June 2021 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

Our latest event ‘The future of European stock exchanges’ aims to progress the debate initially raised in our recent report on ‘The problem with European stock markets’. We will be joined by guest speakers including Robert Barnes, head of primary markets at LSEG plc & CEO at Turquoise, Fredrik Ekström, head of Nasdaq Stockholm, European […]

» Read more

‘The future of CMU and EU capital markets on the other side of Brexit’ with Isabel Benjumea MEP

May 2021 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

Isabel Benjumea was elected as an MEP for the European People’s Party in May 2019. She is Vice-Chair of the Committee on Regional Development and a member of the ECON Committee. She was the rapporteur for the ECON Committee on its own report on CMU, published in September last year. She previously worked at the […]

» Read more

‘Rethinking public equity markets – the view from the Long Term Stock Exchange’ with Michelle Greene, Chief policy officer, Long Term Stock Exchange

December 2020 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

The Long Term Stock Exchange is trying to revolutionise public equity markets in the US by encouraging firms and investors to take a longer-term perspective. Last year it (finally) received SEC approval. This event is an opportunity to share what the LTSE is trying to achieve; the obstacles and challenges it faces; and the potential […]

» Read more

‘CMU and driving retail investment in Europe – the Dutch perspective’ with Jos Heuvelman, member of the Executive Board, Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM)

December 2020 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

The Netherlands has the largest and deepest investor market in Europe and is leading the way in the EU’s efforts to boost retail participation across Europe – one of the key elements of the latest capital markets union action plan. This event will address the challenges of increasing retail investment from a policy, supervisory and […]

» Read more

Productive investment

December 2020 • Event • Capital marketsby New Financial

“Water, water, everywhere – nor any drop to drink’: The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner During this event, we will discuss our upcoming paper on ‘Productive investment’. This short paper is the first in a series of papers and events around the theme of ‘rebooting capital markets’ in the UK in the wake of Brexit. […]

» Read more

Event series: Covid & capital markets

March 2020 • Event • Capital marketsby New Financial

How the industry responds to the Covid crisis and how it behaves in the next few weeks and months will define its relationship with government and society for the next decade. *But* it will be vital in the coming months that the industry demonstrates a clear sense of purpose and avoids the mistakes and behaviours that […]

» Read more

Report: The Crisis of Capitalism

December 2019 • Unlocking capital marketsby William Wright & Christian Benson

Few sectors of the economy have been blamed more for fuelling popular anger with capitalism as banking and finance – and few sectors have as much to lose from the backlash against it. This report analyses why so many people are so angry, summarises the main causes of the widespread loss of faith in capitalism over the past few decades in the form of 10 different types of real and perceived inequalities, and outlines the main policy responses that have been proposed.

» Read more

The future of capital markets union – with Sébastien Raspiller, head of financial services at the French Treasury

September 2019 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

A private breakfast with Sébastien Raspiller, head of financial services at the French Treasury, to discuss ‘The future of capital markets union’. Some of the key topics for discussion will include: The progress made over the past few years by the capital markets union initiative The main barriers to further progress of the CMU project […]

» Read more

‘The Bank That Lived a Little: Barclays in the Age of the Very Free Market’ – dinner with Philip Augar

February 2019 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

This event’s focus will be Philip’s fascinating recent book ‘The Bank That Lived a Little: Barclays in the Age of the Very Free Market’. The book is a parable of global finance and markets over the past 40 years as viewed through the lens of the transformation of Barclays from the 1980s onwards from a UK […]

» Read more

The purpose of stock exchanges

January 2019 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

A high-level dinner to discuss the working draft of our upcoming paper on ‘The purpose of stock exchanges’. The paper tries to reconcile the huge increases in liquidity and efficiency of equity markets over the past few decades with a structural decline in new issuance and the number of listed companies – and includes some […]

» Read more

Report: the New Financial global capital markets growth index

January 2019 • Unlocking capital marketsby William Wright, Panagiotis Asimakopoulos & Eivind Friis Hamre

Our unique index analyses the size, depth and growth potential of capital markets in 60 countries around the world across 25 different sectors of activity. It shows that capital markets in the US are by far the largest in the world today and are nearly twice the size of markets in Asia and Europe. But capital markets in Asia and emerging markets are catching up fast – and are set to dominate the potential growth in global capital markets in the coming decade.

» Read more

‘Adam Smith: what he thought and why it matters’ – breakfast with Jesse Norman MP

December 2018 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

This event’s focus will be Jesse Norman’s fascinating recent book on ‘Adam Smith: what he thought and why it matters’. In the context of debate over the ‘crisis of capitalism’, this will be one of the most interesting and challenging discussions that we host this year and we have invited a senior and wide-ranging audience […]

» Read more

‘The impact of capital markets on people’s everyday lives’ – breakfast with Jes Staley

December 2018 • Event • Unlocking capital marketsby New Financial

Jes Staley, group chief executive at Barclays, will discuss the implications of our recent report on The Impact of Capital Markets on People’s Everyday Lives, as viewed through the lens of the economy of the North West of England (in case you missed it, you can download the report here).  Jes will talk about why politicians, […]

» Read more

Report: the size, depth & growth opportunity in EU capital markets

March 2018 • Ecommerce reports • Unlocking capital marketsby William Wright & Panagiotis Asimakopoulos

Most sectors of the capital markets in the EU have shrunk relative to the size of the economy over the past decade – and the gap in the depth of capital markets with the US has widened. This report highlights the urgent need for action to boost capital markets in the EU – particularly after Brexit – but shows that there is a huge growth opportunity for capital markets in Europe.

» Read more

A New Year rehab programme for the City of London

January 2018 • Unlocking capital marketsby William Wright

The recent attack on the City by the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – and the public comments by a bank chief executive on bankers’ bonuses and populism – show that 10 years on from the financial there are few signs of mistrust and anger with the industry going away. If the industry wants to bridge the gap with the rest of society it should start by talking about itself in a different way.

» Read more

Report: a decade of change in capital markets

October 2017 • Ecommerce reports • Unlocking capital marketsby William Wright & Panagiotis Asimakopoulos

The shadow of the financial crisis has dominated the banking and finance industry for nearly a decade. This report measures the concrete impact of the crisis on 16 sectors of the capital markets industry – from investment banks and asset managers, to exchanges, trading volumes and regulation – and highlights which sectors have suffered, which have weathered the storm, and which have flourished.

» Read more

 
» Close & go back to the website