Attended the annual markit customer conference in London today, titled Financial Markets Reform. Below are some highlights, while more detail can be found here.

• Large turnout, at least 500 if not more.
• Every seat with a keypad device for voting.
• Four panels and a keynote by Rich Ricci, until very recently CEO of Barclays Corporate and Investment Bank.
• If Europe had "more heads on spikes, like the US" there would now be less press, public and political pressure to push through new punitive regulations like the Financial Transactions Tax.
• Another question to the vote, "what is highest on the radar currently" and of the five options, highest was CCP Clearing at 62% and then Trade reporting at 24%.
• What will be the definition of an benchmark vs an index for regulators, so is it as simple as saying that when financial derivatives exist on an index is it a benchmark?
• Barclays by March 2013 had cleared $13 trillion of client trades (by May 2012 it was $1 trillion and by Nov 2012 $5 trillion).

Amir Khwaja