On 9 July 2014, the FCA launched a review of competition in the wholesale sector, publishing a call for input from market participants and stakeholders which aims to identify any areas that warrant further study. The review focuses on the wholesale securities and investment markets, including markets and market infrastructure, investment banking activities, asset management and corporate banking. It does not include payment systems, credit rating agencies, benchmarking activities and wholesale insurance. The review aims to establish areas in the wholesale sector where competition is not working effectively covering issues such as exploitation of market power, barriers to entry, expansion or switching, flow of information between market participants, best execution, cross-selling and conflicts of interest.

The FCA call for input is available at:

http://www.fca.org.uk/static/documents/market-studies/wholesale-sector-competition-review-call-for-inputs.pdf.

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