Head of the firm’s Edinburgh office since 2015, Hallam said they had embarked on a deliberate policy of hiring more staff and updating computer systems purely to deal with increasing pressures for firms to be in top regulatory form.
Increasing costs are just one of the many difficult by-products of new rules wrapped up in upcoming regulation such as Mifid II, he said.
He said: “I think it is going to get harder and harder to operate, and I think regulation has a lot to do with it.”
The firm has been expanding its compliance and IT teams to deal with the expected increase in workload.
“Regulation is sensible, it’s important in our industry which admittedly has been at the lighter end of regulation so far,” he added.
“We like to think we are ahead of the curve here at Quilter Cheviot in making sure we are compliant. This is not an industry you want to be behind the curve in, as everything moves so quickly.
“Mifid II will be a big step up in terms of client reporting and then there’s this peculiar rule of informing clients when their portfolio falls 10%.”
The increasing focus on keeping clients informed of relatively minor changes in portfolios is something that could only fuel the short-term attitudes to investments, Hallam added.
