AIMA’s 2018 Global Policy and Regulatory Forum is rapidly approaching. This year’s event takes us to Dublin over 19 and 20 March and is devoted to the theme of Managing a Fragmented World.

2018’s Forum promises an impressive list of speakers from the regulatory community. We are delighted that we will be hearing keynote addresses from Dr Andreas Dombret, Member of the Board of the German Bundesbank, Conor O’Kelly, CEO of the Irish National Treasury Management Agency, and Michael D'Arcy, Irish Minister of State in the Department of Finance.

We also have a packed panel line up, including speakers from ESMA, IOSCO, the FCA, the Bank of England, the AMF, the CBI, CIMA, the NFA, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, among others. We appreciate the fact that those who oversee our industry are so open to sharing their thoughts on the future of the regulatory environment. We know that attendees gain a huge amount of insight regarding the likely impact of supervision and regulation on their business.

We have spent the last month refining our panel discussion points to make sure we really get to the heart of the topics that our members care about. We’ll be kicking off with a conversation about cross-border issues in which Brexit will loom large. We are going to use the opportunity to delve into the practical steps that firms should be considering right now, while looking ahead to the potential future regulation of cross-border business.

Our second panel is devoted to accountability, both for investment managers and boards. The FCA’s planned rules for Senior Managers will be a major focus for this session, but we will also take a broader look at what accountability and culture mean in a global context.

Panel 3 will see us focus on leverage – a timely topic given the ESRB’s and IOSCO’s work on this topic – before we turn to technology. In the space of the last 12 months, RegTech, blockchain and digital assets have become headline topics for every industry discussion and we’re pleased to be able to delve into these themes with the regulators and policymakers whose job it is to decide how to deal with such innovation.

Our final panel of the day is devoted to investor issues – with a spotlight on fees, performance and alignment of interests. We will also be weaving ESG concerns into the conversation to get a sense of how these feature in investors’ decision-making.

Alongside the panel sessions, we will also have a series of breakout and lunchtime sessions to enable participants to get the most out of their time in Ireland.

If you haven’t signed up to this year’s Global Policy and Regulatory Forum, please do consider it. It’s hard to overstate the value of hearing from policymakers first hand in this sort of setting, while catching up with peers. Visit www.aima-gprf.org.