Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chair Ashley Alder has argued that recent UK equity market reforms are "already having an impact", but argued that the "harder task" is to more successfully funnel savings into domestic businesses.
In a speech held at the International Capital Markets Conference on Tuesday (8 October), Alder said that the FCA has delivered "the most significant reforms of the UK's public equity markets in a generation". However, the UK financial watchdog's chair also raised concerns about the low levels of investment from UK households, citing figures by think-tank New Financial, which stated that the share of UK households that own stocks and shares directly has halved from 23% in 2003 to 11% in 2022. "UK market capitalisation stands at around $3.2trn, or 100% of GDP," Alder said, adding that "...
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