About Quorum 15

For twelve years Quorum 15 has been bringing together senior executives
from across the buy-side and sell-side to build consensus and help drive
change in global financial markets. Through quarterly meetings around the world,
Quorum 15 fosters dialogue, builds mutual understanding and identifies common
opportunities and challenges. We work with and support regulators and industry
associations in the promotion of fair, efficient and well-functioning financial markets.

The founding principles from 10 years ago still remain true today.
Everyone around the quorum table is an equal stakeholder, and no one attends for free.

Format of our quorums

Comprising 15 senior executives drawn from leading global institutions, these regular meetings (quorums)
have traditionally been held across five key financial centres: London, New York, Boston, Hong Kong
and Sydney. A total of 15 different streams encompassing equities, fixed income and FX trading, translates to over
40 individual, agenda-driven meetings annually.

Quorum 15 positioning

We are self-financed, independent and completely neutral. With a global network of c. 180 individual members, we focus on the regulatory, geopolitical and structural issues impacting financial markets, our members business and technology strategies, and how they interact.

In the decade since it was established, Quorum 15 has positioned itself as a think-tank rather than a workshop or lobbying group. Instead of getting lost in the weeds of day-to-day operational challenges and how they might be overcome, Quorum 15 is looking at the entire ecosystem of the trading business, and at ways that ecosystem could be improved.

High level meeting notes capture the scope of the quorum discussion and common areas of agreement, or where views differ. Members share these points with the relevant parties within their organisations, who in turn can communicate them to regulators, industry associations and other relevant bodies.

To ensure the agendas only focus on what is most important to its members, an advisory board comprised of buy and sell-side members has been established in each location. In the run-up to each quorum, three or four key topics are identified, put to the vote and from there the primary and secondary topics are determined along with any guest speakers.

Quorum 15 takes its governance responsibilities very seriously and operates under both the Chatham House rule and a bespoke Competition Law policy, created by an international law firm. Members are provided with a set of rules governing any potentially anti-competitive behaviour, as well as training and guidance materials for the quorum chairs.

Milestones

2008    First London equity & fixed income quorums. Additional equity stream added to meet demand

2009    New York equity quorum & London Q15 network reception established

2010    New York fixed income quorum created

2011    Launch of equity trading quorums in Hong Kong & Sydney

2013    Additional London fixed income quorum created to meet demand

2014    Boston equities quorum established

2015    APAC fixed income quorum launched in Hong Kong

2016    New compliance & FX quorums launched in London

2017    London MiFID II summit featuring four EU regulators, BoE and SEC

2018   ESMA and EU regulators to join our 10th anniversary London network reception