Agenda Archive

Competition in the presence of network effects: when fewer is more

March 2019

In October 2018 the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) cleared Post Office’s acquisition of Payzone’s bill payment systems business. This was a three-to-two merger in a two-sided market with network effects, but the CMA found that the merger...

Fair ground: a practical framework for assessing fairness

March 2019

Regulators are increasingly looking to firms to ensure that their practices are ‘fair’ in terms of the process followed (e.g. the type of data used) and the outcomes delivered (e.g. which consumers pay more). So, how can boards and senior managers satisfy themselves that practices are indeed fair and in line with their firm’s principles and risk appetite? We present Oxera’s practical framework, which has been used as a tool by senior decision-makers in financial services firms

Stock-ing up: the design of equity trading markets in Europe

March 2019

Equity markets, where investors buy and sell shares, are crucial to the European economy. Regulatory change has opened up competition, leading to more choice and lower trading fees, but also fragmentation and risks to price formation. There is an ongoing debate about the provision of market data services that often overlooks the links between market data services, trading and price formation. How is equity trading functioning from a market design and an end-investor perspective?