In today’s post, the focus will be on a few potential M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) deals that the British competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), is currently dealing with. Whilst also serving as a review of the recent business news in this field, this post will seek to analyse the complex nature of the CMA’s task and all of the aspects that it must consider; the effect of their decision in a given case will, by its very definition, go on to have massive consequences for those businesses involved and, more importantly, the public which is exposed to the effects of these potential deals. What we will see is that, in a number of cases, the balance which is aimed for will weigh heavier on any given side, but finding a solution to this is almost impossible, if even desirable. First up for us is Tesco and its proposed deal to take over the wholesale company Booker, which is something we have analysed before here in Financial Regulation Matters . The...

Here in Financial Regulation Matters and across the U.K., with regards to those concerned with Corporate Governance, the collapse of the large retailer British Home Stores (BHS) has been a cause of great debate, and even greater consternation. The ease with which the company fell, and the sheer arrogance of those who caused it, led to Parliamentary investigations and a number of increasingly damning investigations from Journalists, academics, and commentators. In February, in one of the first posts here in Financial Regulation Matters , we looked at the calls to make private companies abide by the Financial Reporting Council’s Corporate Governance Code (which is aimed at Public Companies only), whilst later we also looked at the calls to enforce the implementation of workers and stakeholders’ interests at Board level, together with the proposed binding-quality of shareholder votes when it came to Executive compensation. If we take a look back into the archives of posts, a growing...

This short post looks to understand the current financial regulatory environment within China, because there is a growing debate as to whether the decentralised and fragmented framework that currently exists is capable of protecting the world’s second-largest, yet arguably fragile economy. The overriding call is to create a ‘super-regulator’ who would oversee all the major elements of the Chinese economy; this is something worth considering, but the recent calls for the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to take the lead may not be as optimal as it seems. This post, therefore, analyses the problems facing the Chinese economy, and why it has them, and ultimately suggests that a centralised financial regulator would be the best option, but that there must be conditions attached to make it effective. Currently, within China, the PBOC has a broad remit over the macro elements of the Chinese economy, but the detailed elements of overseeing aspects such as banking, securities, and insura...