Brief

The IRSG wanted to understand the challenges facing the ESG ratings market. Their aim was to provide practical guidance to industry, regulators and policymakers on futureproofing the integrity and efficiency of the ESG ratings market.

Strategy & Execution

In order to develop the report H/Advisors Cicero undertook a global regulatory review of the policy landscape, and an academic literature review of existing research into ESG ratings. We facilitated and hosted industry workshops and conducted a series of in-depth interviews with industry leaders, data providers and global regulators.

Result

Our report was published in February 2022 and can be found here as the industry viewpoint. The report is being used as the basis for an ongoing programme of global regulatory engagement, with the intention of introducing consistent regulation across the market.

Brief

Following the Government’s consultation on ‘Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance’, they committed to introducing new regulations for the actuarial profession, overseen by the Financial Reporting Council.

H/Advisors Cicero was appointed by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) in 2021 to support the organisation ahead of incoming regulations.

Strategy & Execution

Since the Government’s consultation, the Draft Audit Reform Bill was announced in the Queen’s Speech in 2022 but has not yet been introduced to Parliament.

Cicero has supported the IFoA as it awaits clarity on the future of actuarial regulation. We engaged with key stakeholders to ensure the views of actuaries are accurately represented.

Through various public affairs tactics, ranging from Parliamentary questions to Select Committee inquiries, Cicero has sought to provide the IFoA with clarity to ensure its members can operate with confidence whilst the details of incoming regulations remain unclear.

Results

H/Advisors Cicero has delivered a successful engagement campaign that has resulted in meetings with the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, cross-party MPs, members of the House of Lords and regulatory stakeholders.

As we await legislation, Cicero has placed the IFoA in the best possible position amongst political stakeholders to ensure future legislation does not negatively impact the actuarial profession.

Brief

H/Advisors Cicero worked with HSBC to build consumer awareness around the brand and its insurance products in newly emerging markets as part of HSBC’s ‘WORLD’S LOCAL BANK’ campaign. This campaign reflected the bank’s long-term growth strategy which had been based on acquiring the 2^nd or 3^rd largest retail bank in each of its core markets. Over time, the acquisitions were re-branded HSBC and investment was made to build local HSBC brand awareness. 

Our team worked with the Group marketing team, based in London – where we worked very closely with other key centres notably Hong Kong, Paris, and New York. The brief required an integrated content campaign covering traditional and social media channels, sales and marketing. 

Strategy & Execution

We created PR, marketing and sales content for retail operations in all 73 countries. The strategy was to help drive brand mentions in Tier 1 national media as well as supporting sales and marketing in all markets. 

In the first phase, we designed and conducted consumer research on over 20,000 people annually across core markets, covering key areas of personal finances. In the second phase, we used the findings to produce branded reports and sales collateral to help position and build the brand in emerging markets. This required a constant drumbeat of PR coverage which we sustained by producing a 12-month content and media placement programme. 

Result

We produced a wide range of campaign outputs including:

• Over 100 copywritten reports and brochures for use in-branch (sales) and in the media (PR)
• PR and social media content including press releases throughout the year generating around 3,000 pieces of online and print news coverage annually across 20 core media markets. Earned media coverage was 15x greater than the campaign investment. 
• Global roadshows to assist with the internal roll-out of the content programme with important stakeholders including local market MDs, sales and marketing teams. Our campaign helped to drive a 14% increase in branch sales of insurance products.

Brief

H/Advisors Cicero has been the retained public affairs agency to Fidelity International for over a decade.

We are tasked with providing timely, insightful and useful policy updates and political analysis to the Public Policy team and wider business.

We have advised Fidelity through a period of momentous political upheaval including three General Elections, the Scottish and EU referendums, the Brexit process, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine.

We identify risks and opportunities for the business, including recommending targeted and impactful opportunities to engage and influence in the public policy process. Key issues include financial regulation, post-Brexit issues, sustainable finance and ESG, pensions policy, and personal finance and investment.

Strategy & Execution

H/Advisors Cicero hosts a weekly analysis call for the Fidelity International team to examine emerging policy, political and regulatory trends.

We also prepare a bespoke weekly report which summarises current issues and scans the horizon for key upcoming events of relevance to the business.

We provide an in-depth policy briefing which builds on the insights provided in the weekly calls and reports, on issues which are critical to the business in planning investment decisions and mitigating risk factors.

The business has gradually increased its appetite for proactive engagement with the public policy process – H/Advisors Cicero has devised strategies that reflect the business’s approach to seek targeted but impactful policy engagement.

Result

From an initial group of three, our political reports and analysis notes are now routinely shared with an internal distribution group of around 40, across public policy, comms, markets, pensions, ESG and compliance functions.

Fidelity’s engagement with policy and political processes has grown and the business is now regularly invited to high-level Ministerial meetings and events, as well as hosting their own roundtables with the likes of Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen MP and City Minister Andrew Griffith MP.

Brief

Copper was founded in 2018 to function as a cryptocurrency custodian to provide and protect digital asset infrastructure for banks, prime brokerages and hedge funds and to serve as a bridge between blockchain-based technologies and conventional asset finance. H/Advisors Cicero began working with Copper in early 2020 to oversee public affairs, generate external media coverage and develop their social media strategy.

Strategy & Execution

Eschewing both the standard cryptocurrency firm’s communications strategy that revolves around the price of Bitcoin and the conventional asset management media profile, we opted to externally position Copper as being the leading digital assets hub for major financial institutions. Our Public Affairs team engaged with UK and European politicians and corporate governance officials to more broadly highlight that increasing attention needed to create a regulatory framework for digital assets.

In order to position Copper as the primary cryptoasset destination for asset managers, we pursued a multipronged strategy. We utilised contacts with the cryptocurrency and asset finance trade press to regularly cover Copper’s growth and development while ensuring bigger news such as fundraising rounds, or the hiring of former Chancellor Lord Hammond as a Special Adviser, achieved prominent coverage in top national business publications. We were also not afraid to go off the beaten track, generating media hits that ranged from Copper’s internal response to the energy crisis or its podcast CopperCast.

Result

As digital assets sector has come of age in recent years, Copper’s external profile mirrors this rise in mainstream exposure. In the past two years, coverage on Copper has exponentially expanded in frequency, range and reach. In 2021, Copper was mentioned in nearly 2,500 media articles with news announcements and analysis about the firm regularly appearing in Tier One publications, including eight times in the Financial Times and six times in Bloomberg. In addition to important news being highlighted, Copper’s compelling economic insights and analysis have been featured in leading media titles with Cicero helping establish Copper as a thought leader in digital assets. The Sunday Times recently wrote that Copper’s Philip Hammond “has become the sensible face of crypto”.

Brief

H/Advisors Cicero was approached by Plus500 to support in preparing a comprehensive report on European and domestic approaches by financial services regulators (ESMA, BaFin, CNMV, CySEC, etc.). The report was to look at offering Contracts for Difference (CfDs) to retail investors in the context of ESMA’s review of the MiFID II Product Governance Guidelines review.

We were then tasked with preparing an engagement plan on behalf of Plus500 to prevent a de facto ban of CfD trading for retail investors through the revised guidelines.

Strategy & Execution

We conducted research across EU, Member State and IOSCO recommendations, reports and rules applicable to the CfD industry. We also completed a comprehensive assessment of responses submitted to Calls for Evidence by ESMA and the Commission in the retail investment space. This aimed to understand what information/advocacy is currently before those bodies for their consideration in the context of the Guidelines review.

We undertook comprehensive and prioritised stakeholder mapping. This identified key targets within ESMA’s two relevant stakeholder groups (Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group and the Investor Protection and Intermediaries Standing Committee Consultative Working Group) as well as the ESMA team in charge of reviewing the revised MiFID II guidelines.​ We then developed and implemented a six-month engagement plan to ensure Plus500’s views were well-reflected in the final version of the guidelines. ​

“The compliance and regulatory services Cicero and specifically, Mr. Alexandros Nikolaidis, provided have been excellent and always given with great care. Cicero is a team of hardworking, knowledgeable people who have provided us with an extremely strong level of service and great response time.”

Ofir Chudin, Chief Executive Officer, Plus500CY

Result

Plus500’s executive team now has a complete view of the CfD regulatory ecosystem across the European Union and can make informed strategy decisions as to priority markets.

ESMA took into account Plus500’s positioning in the preparation of the final MiFID II product Governance Guidelines, retaining the existing regime requiring comprehensive target market assessments before CfDs are offered to retail investors. Crucially they are not going as far as a de facto ban on the service.