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His speech focused on potential financial stability risks linked to the phenomenon of "too big to fail" and the fund management industry and also on policy developments affecting the fund management industry:
"Addressing potential systemic risks in asset management will be an important part of our work going forward. As we develop our insights into the risks in the industry, it is clear that asset management has a specific profile that sets it apart from banking and other financial activities. This implies that the lens through which we see stability risks in banking and insurance, might not be the right one for asset management. Our proposal in this debate, therefore, is that in addition to looking at individual institutions, we must include in our analysis the very different types of activities of the asset management sector and their interdependence with systemic risks in the wider financial market.
One topic that has been the focus of much attention in MiFID II, both in the discussions on the legislation and in the context of our technical advice, is inducements. Our key concern in this context is investor protection. We know that average investors often rely on recommendations from banks and investment firms when deciding how to allocate and select their investments. MiFID II tackles one of the root causes of unsuitable advice by regulating the conditions for the receipt by intermediaries of payments from third parties, including by banning such payments in certain cases (independent advice and discretionary portfolio management). In those cases where inducements are allowed, they need to be enhancing the quality of advice provided to consumers. We have set out in the consultation paper the criteria that we believe should be taken into account when assessing the quality enhancement criterion."