October 31 is getting closer (this is the last B4B before the deadline), and the political situation in the UK is unlike anything I can remember.

Our regular guide is Graham Bishop, proprietor of the eponymous grahambishop.com, who will highlight what he sees as the key developments – focusing particularly on:

• The Parliamentary grilling of Dombrovskis (and Vestager) are set for later on the day we meet! Most other Commissioners come earlier so we may have a view on the chance of the whole Commission being voted into office for 1 November.
• TLTRO III: Implications for the banking system of continued negative rates – to be highlighted in the EBA’s 2019 Transparency exercise due in November; Joint Committee of ESAs on Risks and Vulnerabilities.
• Responses to the TEG report on Taxonomy.
• Fintech regulation: Coure, Bruegel, EIOPA.

Plus old chestnuts like the internationalisation of the euro, the future of CMU, the impact of MiFID 2, the decline of correspondent banking – and so on.

But he won’t get things his own way (I hope). Keeping him on the straight and narrow this month, we are pleased to welcome back Jacques Lafitte. He is a former member of Commissioner de Silguy’s cabinet in Brussels, who played a major role in designing and launching the euro. He is founder of Avisa, which looks at EU affairs with a specialism in competition, the single market and financial services. Before this, he was director of corporate affairs at Microsoft. He has also clocked 900 flying hours in his previous life as a pilot, and owns a Japanese restaurant in Paris.

Adding her own star-power will be Anna Isaac, reporter on financial markets, trade policy and economics in the Wall Street Journal’s London bureau. Before the Journal, she was economics correspondent for The Telegraph.

If you (or a colleague) would like to join us, please let us know as soon as possible by emailing alex@csfi.org or by calling the Centre on 0207 621 1056. Thanks to the generosity of our friends at the CISI, there will be plenty of coffee, tea and buns.

Many thanks,

Andrew Hilton
Director
CSFI

PS: Two requests: first, we would like to start on time at 8.30. Second, have some sort of photo ID to show to security at the front desk.

*Should you feel so moved, Graham invites you to join his “Friends of Graham Bishop” – and to sign up for his Brussels Finance Watch.