Brexit opens way for less complicated financial products in EU, says MPG

Brexit will open the way for less complicated, more standardised financial products in the European Union by eliminating the influence of the UK’s common law principles, according to Richard Ambery, General Counsel for the Managing Partners Group.

The European Commission is now free to ditch a more Anglo-Saxon legal approach and consummate a capital markets union, complete with simpler, formulaic debt products with a taxonomy governed by civil law principles grounded in the Code Napoleon adopted universally across continental Europe, says Richard Ambery.

This will also create opportunities for Switzerland to take a bigger role in the market, says Richard Ambery, who is due to speak at the Structuring Solutions for the European and UK Marketplace Conference organized by FinanceMalta and being held at the Hotel St Gotthard in Zurich on 30 November.

Richard Ambery, General Counsel at MPG and based in Malta, commented: "Europe needs a proper capital markets union without borders that will end discrimination by reference to the jurisdiction of either issuer or investor. Proper CMU would mean that it is as easy for a Czech motorcycle manufacturer to issue bonds to investors in Finland as for a Portuguese software developer to launch an IPO on the Budapest Stock Exchange."

"The dominance of English and New York law to govern Euromarket instruments under which terms and conditions may be tailored for each and every deal has led to a myriad of complex and often opaque financial products. But Brexit creates the opportunity for remaining Member States to throw away the Anglo-Saxon model and instigate a codified approach to financial instruments, where instruments conforming and limited to specified categories will accord equivalent rights and obligations to businesses raising capital and those providing it across the Union."

"Switzerland could well buy into this model as although the country is outside the EU, it shares an affinity for standardization in business and a civil law tradition with the rest of continent - there will be opportunities for Zurich to become a leading financial centre servicing a single market."

Financial industry professionals who would like to attend the Structuring Solutions for the European and UK Marketplace Conference need to register before the event at: http://clearviewpublishing.com/events/structuring-solutions-european-uk-marketplace/

MPG is a multi-disciplined investment house that specialises in the creation, management and administration of regulated mutual funds and issuers of asset-backed securities for SMEs, financial institutions and sophisticated investors. It currently manages funds with a gross value of $500m.

For more information on Managing Partners Group see: www.managingpartnersgroup.com

FinanceMalta is the public-private initiative set up to promote Malta as an International Financial Centre. For more information, see the website: https://www.financemalta.org