The Cross-Border Group
CBG is an informal industry group which meets quarterly via conference call to
discuss global compliance and regulatory issues facing U.S. subsidiaries of
European, Asian, etc. and their overseas parent institutional/wholesale investment
banks, capital markets firms, investment advisors/asset managers, hedge funds,
private equity firms, inter-dealers, derivative firms and insurance companies. (A
handful of CBG Members are U.S.-based institutional firms headquartered
with international offices.)
The impetus to create this group was the perception that there was no small,
discrete open forum for senior compliance and in-house legal colleagues at small
to
mid-sized global
firms
to
discuss
current and
future
crossborder compliance/supervisory issues such as equity/fixed income sales & trading,
surveillance, AML/KYC, distribution of global research, control of e-traffic (incl.
monitoring/ archiving E-Mails & Instant Messages), etc.
Further, as mechanisms like MiFID, SEC MOUs, etc. for cross-border regulatory
cooperation currently exist (with more on the way as a result of the current global
market/economic crisis), the spectre of coordinated enquiries by regulators on both
sides of the Pond who have an interest in possibly standardizing rules in markets
world-wide provides another reason for global firms to stay in touch on a routine
basis.
In the end, CBG's focus and goal/objective is to under certain guidelines designed
to encourage a full/frank airing of ideas, thoughts and suggestions to help the
financial industry cope with (and possibly steer? refine?) the anticipated wave of
new regulators in the not too distant future.