AMNT members can attend for free

Executive Summary

It is widely accepted that the public are becoming increasingly distrusting of society's once-respected institutions.

Many believe that we are in the “last chance saloon” as far as the public’s perception of the financial services sector is concerned.

There is a very real danger that the drip, drip, drip, of adverse publicity caused by the persistent malpractice, malfeasance and miss-conduct by the mischievous minority means that the public at large are getting dangerously close to “the point of no return,” whereby regardless of what we subsequently do the situation may not be salvageable.

If people lose all trust in the sector it may never be possible for us to earn it back again. 

To be blunt, it is mission-critical that we do not sleepwalk into that situation because the long-term consequences to society and the commercial success of the sector would be dire.

The trust deficit issue is a significant problem for politicians, policymakers, regulators, market participants and the public at large too.

However, despite the magnitude of the problem, we do not believe there has ever been a concerted international effort involving key stakeholders to attack the problem head on; until now.

The overall purpose of our symposia in London on 16th May is to begin to galvanise support for the idea that the finance sector should accelerate the rebuilding of trust and confidence in an intelligently thought-through way i.e. as part of an organised programme of activity involving key stakeholders around the world. How else could the problem be solved?

We do not believe it will be possible to solve the problem in any other way; anything else would be to under-estimate the scale of the challenge and the trouble there will be if we do not solve it.

It's too big, complicated and serious an issue to be able to solve it without bringing the key stakeholders together; and that is exactly what our 5-year international project is designed to do.

People from righ around the world are volunteering to play their part in this major international effort. The project is all about the harsh reality that the finance sector desperately needs changing. There are too many conflicts of interest, a lack of alignment of interests, too many asymmetries of information and ongoing reputational damage for the sector as a whole because of the continuous drip, drip, drip of poor market conduct.

We will be bringing together key stakeholders from around the world including politicians, policymakers, regulators, professional associations, trade bodies, thought leaders, academics, civil society leaders, campaign groups, progressive market participants and so on; in fact anybody that has a genuine interest in positive, progressive and purposeful finance reform.

The early signs are that people want to get involved, which is great because we need all the help we can get. Fixing the trust deficit is going to take a coordinated effort over a long period of time but the idea is that lots of people putting in a little bit of effort is a better approach than just a handful trying to carry the load themselves.

It’s all about working in a collaborative, collegiate, consensus-building and coordinated way, internationally.

We are going to be building a “dream-team” of subject-matter experts on 20+ topics; each topic is part of the solution.

In practical terms we are going to be running special meetings around the world. We are going to be holding them in every financial centre, building a global network of like-minded people who want to be part of the solution. We are looking for people that have a “stand up rather than stand-by” mindset; people that care of the wellbeing of the sector and the people it should be serving well.

In March there were special events in Boston and New York; in May there will be special events in Amsterdam, London and Dublin and then it will continue to build month after month, city after  city.

We know we are being very ambitious but also very realistic. It is all about “the art of the possible” and our collective interest and experience tells us that by working together we can all make difference.

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*Note: The symposium itself ends at 17:00 but delegates can enjoy drinks, nibbles and networking until 18:30