The Competition Law in Financial Services Summit

Registration
09:00

Chairperson's Opening Remarks
09:30

Discussing the Interplay of Regulatory Regimes in Financial Services
09:40

• Concurrency arrangements and their effectiveness 
• Recent trends in agency focus and enforcement 
• What agencies are diverging on
• Interplay between consumer duty, financial stability, and competition 

Examining the Impact Big Tech has had on Financial Services
10:25

• Balancing competing interests (traditional players, Big Tech, Fin Tech etc.) 
• Investment practices from Big Tech firms
• How regulators should respond to disruptions in financial services
• The intersection of competition and consumer powers

Networking and Refreshment Break
11:10

Navigating Innovations in Payment System Policy and their Impact on Competition
11:30

• Open banking - are we on the right track
• Implications of digital currencies 
• How the card schemes are innovating and how this affects payment policy 
• Impacts of acquisitions made by Visa and MasterCard on payments innovation
• Platform reform 

Exploring Competition Litigation and Class Actions
12:25

• What lessons can be learned from recent certification cases
• Key strategic issues for litigation and class actions
• Mitigating damages and market-wide harm
• Proving loss
• Looking ahead to new cases and future decisions

Networking and Lunch Break
13:10

Addressing ESG and Sustainability and how it Impacts Financial Services
14:00

• Exploring the intersectionality between competition law and ESG and sustainability
• How can financial service firms achieve their ESG goals and targets
• October guidance on ESG and its use in FS
• Competition Authority guidance on ESG

Insights into Market Investigations and Studies by Competition Authorities
14:45

• Practices from financial service firms that result in investigation 
• Considering the impact the DMCCB may have on investigation powers 
• How practitioners can adapt to adapt to changing powers 
• Market studies 

Networking and Refreshment Break
15:30

Analysing the Effects of Interaction and Collaboration Between Financial Service Firms on Competition
15:50

• Benefits of collaboration between FS firms
• Information sharing between institutions and the impact of it
• Where the case law stands on information exchange
• Understanding how firms can interact without hindering competition 
• Regulation guidance on interaction between firms and whether the horizontal guidelines are helpful
• Competition in labour markets

Exploring the Application of Recent Merger Control Developments to Financial Services
16:35

• Recent cases involving roll-up mergers and acquisitions 
• Trends and predictions in deal activity 
• Implications of minority investment in and acquisitions of startups 
• How agencies and authorities monitor these acquisitions
• Reform

Chairperson’s Closing Remarks
17:20