Clifford Chance

Stephen King (HSBC), Philip Hertz, Michelle McGreal, Stefan Sax, Ilse van Gasteren

In this session, Stephen King, economist, author and senior advisor at HSBC, joined a panel of Clifford Chance experts from across the global restructuring and insolvency group to look at what lies ahead for the global economy and the financial markets in the wake of Covid-19.

View The Long Walk – Restructuring and insolvency perspectives on the global economy recording.

Alexandre Couturier, Claire Fawcett, Stefanie Ferring, Mike Niekoop, Laura Smallcombe

Our panel discussed the latest hot topics in the real estate lending sector, including ESG, the growth of data centres and double luxcos.

View the Financing real estate during the pandemic and beyond recording.

Alan Houmann (Citi), Caroline Dawson, Simon Gleeson, Phillip Souta

The UK and EU have slowly started to diverge in their approach to regulating financial services. In this panel discussion, we looked at where the gaps have started to emerge, where they are likely to grow, for example, in the UK’s recently announced Wholesale Markets Review, and what the implications are for institutions and markets.

View the Divergence in the City recording.

Elisabeth Braw (American Enterprise Institute), Kay Firth-Butterfield (World Economic Forum), Leo Rees (Milltown Partners LLP), Megan Gordon, Jonathan Kewley, Dessislava Savova, Herbert Swaniker

Our expert panel discussed highlights from our recently published research study, ‘Our Relationship with AI: Friend or Foe’, an extensive global YouGov survey of more than 1,000 tech policy professionals, developed in collaboration with global advisory firm Milltown Partners. We explored AI issues such as trust and bias, and challenged some of the commonly held misconceptions around attitudes to AI regulation and law. We also shared our predictions for AI in 2022.

View the Our relationship with AI – exploring global attitudes to AI and regulation recording.

David DiBari, Jamal El-Hindi, Janice Goh, Anna Górska, Michael Lyons, Gerson Raiser

Following a series of major enforcement cases across the globe, regulators are escalating the scope of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulation. Our panel highlighted the latest AML trends across the EU, UK, US and Asia Pacific regions, and considered what you should be doing in response.

View the AML: Beyond the Baltic scandals – what's next? recording.

Bernice Lee (Chatham House), Tina Paillet (RICS), Chinwe Odimba-Chapman, Daniel Royle, Matt Taylor

Achieving net zero has huge implications for our daily lives and our urban environments. In this session, we discussed what future cities might look like around the world, investigated the role of technology, considered potential investment opportunities and explored what this means for the workforce of the future.

View The future of cities recording.

Andrew Bryan, Adam Craig, Christopher Leonard, Julia Tsybina, Nienke van Stekelenburgh

The Securitisation Regulation has only been in place for a couple of years, but already both the EU and the UK are in the process of reviewing their respective frameworks. While the differences in the regimes remain small for now, the review processes open the possibility that there will be greater divergences over time. We discussed the differences that have already happened and examined the most important ones on the horizon, including the potential impact on securitisations across the UK and the rest of Europe.

View the What's next for the Securitisation Regulation? A UK and EU perspective recording.

Charles Cochrane, Lounia Czupper, Caroline Dawson, Anne Drakeford, Gareth Old, Kate Scott

The next in our sessions on LIBOR transition included a look at the latest developments, including how US dollar term SOFR is playing out in the loan markets, key progress and issues on transition given impending deadlines and a catch-up on the current position in the EU. We also covered the latest developments in relation to synthetic LIBOR.

View the IBORs – recent plot twists recording.

Dr Kristin van Zwieten (University of Oxford)

Governments moved very quickly during the pandemic to offer extraordinary relief with a view to avoiding mass insolvencies. Were governments right to intervene? Were their interventions effective? Could they have been designed better to achieve their aims? How will commercial law be affected in the long run by these interventions? In this session, Dr Kristin van Zwieten, Clifford Chance Associate Professor of Law and Finance at the University of Oxford, explained how an Oxford team of researchers were exploring these questions, and offered her reflections on the UK policy response to Covid-19 related insolvency.

View the Academic Series – The treatment of Covid-19 related insolvency recording.

Peter Cheese (CIPD), Sriram Padmanabhan (Citi), Shaun Scantlebury (Ernst & Young LLP),Emma Stewart MBE (Timewise Foundation), Alastair Windass (Clifford Chance LLP)

The latest session in our Ethics Series was organised in conjunction with the Canary Wharf G30 Conduct and Culture Group and Canary Wharf Multifaith Chaplaincy. With panellists drawn from the UK, but suitable for a global audience, we considered working patterns coming out of the pandemic and the impact on flexible working policies and the long hours culture.

View the Ethics Series – Flexible working and its impact on the office, its culture, values and leadership recording.

Johnna Powell (ConsenSys), Diego Ballon Ossio, Simon Crown, Steven Gatti, Iris Mok, Marian Scheele

The market for NFTs or cryptoassets representing proof of title to a unique digital version of an underlying asset has grown significantly and the legal and regulatory environment is rapidly evolving. NFTs have the potential to generate new revenue streams by establishing new forms of digital property and enabling the monetisation of physical assets. Although most NFT activity to date has been in the creative, sports and gaming sectors, their potential application is much broader. Our expert panel demystified the regulatory issues around NFTs and discussed some of the most significant opportunities across major financial centres.

View the NFT – the rise of the Non-Fungible Token recording.

Philipp Klöckner, Celeste Koeleveld, Christopher Osborne, Christopher Roe, Han Teerink

SPACs – special purpose acquisition companies – have traditionally been limited to the United States, but in 2021, a number of SPACs successfully launched in Europe. In this session, we looked at trends in the European and US SPAC market, including current US regulatory proposals and recent litigious developments. We also considered how the UK has responded through its new rules for SPACs, and shared some insights on the European de-SPAC process.

View the SPACs – current trends in Europe and the US recording.