John McGough - The Latest UK News Regarding the Return of Commission Management Artwork

Castine Conversations

We come across hundreds of interesting people and firms in the different projects that we undertake in the C3 space and we thought others would be as fascinated as we are with them. This podcast introduces us to business leaders, entrepreneurs, and businesses around the globe who have special interest in commission management (aka CSAs and soft dollars), broker/producer compensation, research services, and compliance. Each person is unique in their background and offers their advice on getting started and how their business operates and grows. We hope you enjoy it! Castine LLC is a solutions provider to C3 space (Commission Management, Compensation, and Compliance). We have offices in the United States, Argentina, and England. Our solutions are cloud-based and are used by institutional and retail brokers, investment managers, research providers, and hedge funds worldwide.

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Castine Conversations

John McGough - The Latest UK News Regarding the Return of Commission Management

May 29, 2025 • Castine LLC

In this conversation, we meet John McGough, one of the leaders in commission management spanning the past 20 years. John's expertise started at a SPSI, a brokerage unit of S&P and has expanded to several other brokers, always helping them significantly expand their soft dollar / CSA businesses domestically and globally. John is currently consulting at Castine as our head of business development.

With the recent release of PS25/4 and last year's PS24/9, many asset managers in the UK are wondering if now is the right time to start planning to use client commissions for research. We discuss exactly where the "re-bundling" effort sits inside of the FCA's Payment Optionality initiative, what firms should be considering to do now, and how can they rollout a strong plan with their brokers. For brokers, a similar discussion is underway, but of course brokers need to be ahead of their client's needs, so time is clearly of the essence.

For the benefit of all who are interested, John has created an excellent presentation outlining the evolution of commission management and research payment options in the UK, tracing its progression from the "Big Bang" in 1986 to the most recent policy statements. If you'd like a copy, please write to Robin at rh@CastineLLC.com. If you'd like to connect with John regarding any commission management questions, please connect with him at john@CastineLLC.com.

For more information on Castine LLC, including our commission management, compensation, and compliance solutions for investment managers and retail and institutional brokers, please visit CastineLLC.com