The TRADE predictions series 2025: A regulatory outlook 

​Natan Tiefenbrun, president, North American and European equities, Cboe Global Markets    Following a year of elections around the world, and the appointment of a new European Commission, “competitiveness” seems to be high on every policy maker’s agenda. So, 2025 will see more heated debate, and perhaps some real progress, towards the alignment and streamlining of regulation – in an attempt to remove barriers to growth and improve the efficiency of financial markets. But the existential argument will be about how to encourage that greater competitiveness – whether it can be driven by top-down by policy makers or would be better achieved through a competitive market dynamic which enables, innovation and user choice more broadly. Listening to our customers has led us to innovations such as periodic auctions, securities financing transactions clearing, and VWAP trajectory crossing – all market-led solutions that deliver improved trading performance, better risk management and greater capital and operational efficiencies. So, we hope that regulators and policy makers also listen to what the customers of financial markets need – real and open choice and competition in the provision of listing, trading, clearing, settlement and (with the introduction of a consolidated tape) market data. Europe cannot achieve competitiveness without embracing competition.    Leo Labeis, CEO, REGnosys  Next year will be a year of continued reporting challenges and subsequent growth of the RegTech industry – predicted to be worth $85 billion by 2032 – as financial firms look to technology to stay ahead of regulatory changes.  This year saw the implementation of version 3.2 of the CFTC Rewrite, Emir refit (both the European and UK versions), JSFA, MAS and ASIC. This has come with challenges from an implementation perspective, with the EU refit being particularly difficult for market participants and trade repositories.   However, these changes are broadly welcome as they will accelerate the pace of data harmonisation across jurisdictions. Next year will see a continuation of these reforms with Canada and Hong Kong scheduled in the next 12 months. Eyes are also on the US with the new administration’s potential to adopt a new regulatory agenda, and Europe with several consultations regarding Mifid and SFTR.  Matt Smith, chief executive officer, SteelEye     Changing administrations, especially to different parties, typically results in a change in regulatory approach. We have already seen suggestions that the new administration in the US will change its attitude to enforcement, with regulatory attorneys predicting that Trump’s SEC is likely to halt the ‘off-channel’ texting probe.     But while enforcement action might change, the regulatory rules are unlikely to.