Annual Financial Report

RNS Number : 3712J

Tullett Prebon PLC

02 April 2015

 



2 April 2015

Tullett Prebon plc 2014 Annual Report

Tullett Prebon plc ("the Company") has today published its 2014 Annual Report and circular to shareholders incorporating the Notice of the 2015 Annual General Meeting. Both documents can be viewed at or downloaded from www.tullettprebon.com.

Copies of both these documents, together with the Form of Proxy, have been submitted to the UK Listing Authority's Document Viewing Facility via the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at www.Hemscott.com/nsm.do.

The following disclosures comply with Disclosure and Transparency Rule 6.3.5. The Company's full year results announcement of 3 March 2015 contained a management report and condensed financial information derived from the Group's audited statutory accounts. A description of risks and uncertainties, details of related party transactions and the Directors' Responsibility Statement, extracted in full unedited text from the 2014 Annual Report, are set out below. This information should be read in conjunction with, and not as a substitute for, reading the full 2014 Annual Report. Page numbers and notes in the following appendices refer to page numbers and notes in the Company's 2014 Annual Report.

Principal Risks

The Group's Risk Assessment Framework categorises the risks faced by the Group into nine risk categories: Market Risk, Credit Risk, Operational Risk, Strategic and Business Risk, Governance Risk, Regulatory, Legal and Human Resources Risk, Reputational Risk, Liquidity Risk and Other Financial Risks.

MarketRisk

Market risk is the vulnerability of the Group to movements in the value of financial instruments. The Group does not take trading risk and does not hold proprietary trading positions. Consequently, the Group is exposed to Market Risk only in relation to incidental positions in financial instruments arising as a result of the Group's failure to match clients' orders precisely. Such positions are valued and measured from trade date on a daily mark-to-market basis.

The Group's risk management policies reduce the likelihood of such trade mismatches and, in the event that they arise, the Group's policy is to close out such balances immediately. All Market Risk arising across the Group is identified and monitored on a daily basis.

Credit Risk

The Credit Risk faced by the Group consists of counterparty credit risk (as opposed to issuer risk), and principally arises from the following:

·     pre-settlement risk arising from Matched Principal broking;

·     settlement risk arising from Matched Principal broking;

·     cash deposits held at banks and money market instruments; and

·     Name Passing brokerage receivables.

In addition to each individual element of counterparty risk identified above, the Group is also exposed to concentration risk. This is where the Group becomes overly exposed to these credit exposures in the aggregate either to an individual counterparty or to a group of linked counterparties.

Pre-settlement risk

Pre-settlement risk arises in the Matched Principal broking business in which Group subsidiaries interpose themselves as principal between two (or more) contracting parties to a Matched Principal transaction and as a result the Group is at risk of loss should one of the parties to a transaction default on its obligations prior to settlement date. In the event of default, the Group would have to replace the defaulted contract in the market. This is a contingent risk in that the Group will only suffer loss if the market price of the securities has moved adversely to the original trade price.

Counterparty exposures are kept under constant review and the Group takes steps to reduce counterparty risk where market conditions require. Particular attention is paid to more illiquid markets where the price movement is more volatile, such as broking in GDR, ADR and emerging markets instruments.

The Group is also exposed to short term pre-settlement risk where it acts as an executing broker on an exchange, during the period between the execution of the trade and the client claiming the trade. This exposure is minimal as under the terms of the 'give-up' agreements the Group has in place with its clients, trades must be claimed by the end of trade day. Once the trade has been claimed, the Group's only exposure to the client is for the invoiced receivables.

Settlement risk

Settlement risk is the risk that on settlement date a counterparty defaults on its contractual obligation to make payment for a securities transaction after the corresponding value has been paid away by the Group. Unlike pre-settlement risk, the exposure is to the full principal value of the transaction.

In practice the Group is not exposed to this risk as settlement is almost invariably effected on a Delivery versus Payment basis. Free of payment deliveries (where an immediate exposure arises due to the Group's settling its side of the transaction without simultaneous receipt of the counter-value) occur very infrequently and only under the application of stringent controls.

Cash deposits

The Group is exposed to counterparty Credit Risk in respect of cash deposits held with financial institutions. The vast majority of the Group's cash deposits are held with highly rated clearing banks and settlement organisations (as set out in the Credit Risk analysis in Note 25 to the Consolidated Financial Statements).

As with trading counterparties, cash deposit counterparty exposures and limits are kept under review and steps are taken to reduce counterparty risk where market conditions require.

Name Passing brokerage receivables

The majority of transactions brokered by the Group are on a Name Passing basis, where the Group acts as agent in arranging the trade and is not a counterparty to the transaction. Whilst the Group does not suffer any exposure in relation to the underlying instrument brokered (given that the Group is not a principal to the trade), it is exposed to the risk that the client fails to pay the brokerage it is charged.

Receivables arising from Name Passing brokerage are closely monitored by senior management.

Concentration risk

The possibility of concentration risk exists in the level of exposure to counterparties. The Group controls its credit exposure to counterparties and groups of linked counterparties through the application of a system of counterparty credit limits based on the mark-to-market exposure for Matched Principal trades, outstanding brokerage receivables for Name Passing trades, and amount on deposit for cash deposit exposure. Credit departments also monitor exposures across country groupings, credit rating, and types of counterparty.

Operational Risk

Operational Risk is the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people activities, systems or external events. Operational Risk covers a wide and diverse range of risk types, and the overall objective of the Group's approach to Operational Risk management is not to attempt to avoid all potential risks, but to proactively identify and assess risks and risk situations in order to manage them in an efficient and informed manner. Examples of Operational Risk include:

·     IT systems failures, breakdown in security or loss of data integrity;

·     failure or disruption of a critical business process, through internal or external error or event;

·     failure or withdrawal of settlement and clearing systems,

·     events preventing access to premises, telecommunications failures or loss of power supply which interrupt business activities; and

·     broker errors.

Strategic and Business Risk

The Group operates in an environment characterised by intense competition, rapid technological change and a continually evolving regulatory framework. Failure to adapt to changing market dynamics, customer requirements or the way OTC markets and their participants are regulated constitutes a significant long term risk. The Group has identified four principal categories of Strategic and Business Risk:

·     direct regulatory risk;

·     indirect regulatory risk;

·     lower market activity risk; and

·     commercial risk.

Direct regulatory risk

The risk of new regulations imposing a fundamental change to the structure or activity of financial markets, resulting in a reduced role for IDBs. Specific issues could include an inability of the business to provide electronic platforms or market facilities which are compliant with new regulations or the obligation to hold punitive levels of regulatory capital.

Indirect regulatory risk

The risk of a fundamental change to the commercial environment due to the impact on clients of changes to their regulatory environment causing significantly reduced trade volumes. This could include increased execution and clearing costs, onerous collateral requirements or increases in regulatory capital requirements, or a prohibition on certain types of trading activity.

Lower market activity risk

The risk that the Group experiences a sustained period of low market activity leading to reduced revenues. This could arise as a result of adverse macro-economic conditions, reduced levels of general banking activity, market uncertainty or lack of volatility.

Commercial risk

The risk of significant or fundamental changes to the commercial or competitive environment, whether due to client requirements or competitor activity.

The markets in which the Group competes are characterised by rapidly changing technology, evolving customer demand and uses of services, and the potential emergence of new industry standards and practices.  Such changes may increase the risk that the Group faces additional costs or barriers to entry to markets that its competitors do not experience. New entrants or new methods of delivering broking services may gain first mover advantage that the Group may not be able to respond to in a timely manner.

The Group competes with other interdealer brokers for staff. The costs of employing front office broking staff is currently the largest cost faced by the Group.  The effect of the competition for broking staff can result in an increase in staff costs, or if staff leave the Group, can result in the loss of capability, customer relationships and expertise.

Consolidation within the industry or integration with adjacent sectors may provide competing firms or platforms with advantages of scale, access to wider pools of liquidity, or service capability that may put the Group at a competitive disadvantage.

The Group seeks to manage and mitigate its commercial risk by following a clearly defined business development strategy, geographic and product diversification and strong client relationship management.

Commercial risk also includes the risk that the Group is unable to respond to market demand for electronic broking solutions and loses market share as a result. The Group seeks to address this risk through continued development and enhancement of its electronic broking capability, to ensure that it can offer a competitive solution for all major asset classes.

Governance Risk

Governance Risk is the risk of loss or damage to the business arising as a result of a failure of management structures or processes. This includes failure to adhere to applicable corporate governance requirements (such as those recommended by the UK Corporate Governance Code), a failure to ensure adequate succession to key management positions, or the inappropriate use of authority and influence by current or former senior members of staff.

The risk of accounting error or fraud is mitigated by the strong control environment which exists within the Group, in particular the involvement of the Audit Committee, the Internal Audit function and the Group Treasury and Risk Committee. Succession planning within the Group is overseen by the Board.

Regulatory, Legal and Human Resource Risk

This risk concerns the potential loss of value due to regulatory enforcement action (such as for breaches of conduct of business requirements or market abuse provisions); the possible costs and penalties associated with litigation; and the possibility of a failure to retain and motivate key members of staff. The Group also faces the risk that changes in applicable laws and regulations could have a serious adverse impact on the business.

The Group's lead regulator is the FCA, but the Group is also subject to the requirements imposed by the regulatory framework of the other jurisdictions in which the Group operates. The Group's compliance officers monitor compliance with applicable regulations and report regularly to the Board. The Group's Legal department oversees contracts entered into by Group companies, and manages litigation which arises from time to time.

Reputational Risk

Reputational Risk is the risk that the Group's ability to do business might be damaged as a result of its reputation being tarnished. Clients rely on the Group's integrity and probity. The Group has policies and procedures in place to manage this risk to the extent possible, which include conduct of business rules, procedures for employee hiring and the taking on of new business.

Liquidity Risk

The Group seeks to ensure that it has access to an appropriate level of cash, other forms of marketable securities and facilities to enable it to finance its ongoing operations on cost effective terms. Cash and cash equivalent balances are held with the primary objective of capital security and availability, with a secondary objective of generating returns. Funding requirements are monitored by the GTRC.

As a normal part of its operations, the Group faces liquidity risk through the risk of being required to fund transactions that fail to settle on the due date. From a risk perspective, the most problematic scenario concerns 'fail to deliver' transactions, where the business has received a security from the selling counterparty (and has paid cash in settlement of the same) but is unable to effect onward delivery of the security to the buying counterparty. Such settlement 'fails' give rise to a funding requirement, namely the cost of funding the security which we have 'failed to deliver' until such time as the delivery leg is finally settled and we have received the associated cash.

The Group has addressed this funding risk by arranging overdraft facilities to cover any 'failed to deliver' trades, either with the relevant settlement agent/depository or with a clearing bank. Under such arrangements, the facility provider will fund the value of any 'failed to deliver' trades until delivery of the security is effected. Certain facility providers require collateral (such as a cash deposit or parent company guarantee) to protect them from any adverse mark-to-market movement and some also charge a funding fee for providing the facility.

The Group is also exposed to potential margin calls from clearing houses and correspondent clearers, both in the UK and the United States.

In the event of a liquidity issue arising, the firm has recourse to existing global cash resources, after which it could draw down on a £150m committed revolving credit line as additional contingency funding. This facility remained undrawn throughout 2014.

Further details of the Group's borrowings and cash are provided in Notes 22, 25 and 31 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Other Financial Risks

The nature and scope of the Group's operations mean that it is exposed to a number of other financial risks including interest rate risk, currency risk, taxation risks, and pension obligation risk.

Interest rate risk

The Group is exposed to interest rate risk on its cash deposits and on borrowings under bank facilities. The Group's Sterling Notes carry interest at fixed rates. Cash deposits are typically held at maturities of less than three months.

The GTRC periodically considers the Group's exposure to interest rate volatility.

Analysis of the Group's sensitivity to movements in interest rates is set out in Note 25 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Currency risk

The Group trades in a number of currencies around the world, but reports its results in sterling. The Group therefore has translation exposure to foreign currency exchange rate movements in these currencies, principally the US dollar and the Euro, and transaction exposure within individual operations which undertake transactions in one currency and report in another.

Analysis of the Group's sensitivity to movements in foreign currency exchange rates is set out in Note 25 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Taxation risk

The risk of financial loss or misstatement as a result of non-compliance with regulations relating to direct, indirect or employee taxation. The Group employs experienced qualified staff in key jurisdictions to manage this risk and in addition uses professional advisers, as appropriate.

Pension obligation risk

The risk that the Group is required, in the short and medium term, to fund a deficit in the Group's defined benefit pension scheme.

Appendix B: Related party transactions

Transactions between the Company and its subsidiaries, which are related parties, have been eliminated on consolidation and are not disclosed in this note.

The total amount owed to and from related parties   and associates at 31 December 2014 are set out below:

	Amounts owed by related parties		Amounts owed to related parties
	2014  £m	2013 £m	2014  £m	2013 £m
Associates Related parties	0.5 -	0.4 -	- -	- -

The amounts outstanding are unsecured and will be settled in cash.  No guarantees have been given or received.  No provisions have been made for doubtful debts in respect of the amounts owed by related parties.

Appendix C: Directors' Responsibility Statement

The Directors confirm that to the best of their knowledge:

·          the financial statements, prepared in accordance with the relevant financial reporting framework, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the Company and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as a whole;

·          the Strategic Report includes a fair review of the development and performance of the business and the position of the Company and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as a whole, together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties that they face; and

·          the Annual Report and financial statements, taken as a whole, is fair, balanced and understandable and provides the information necessary for shareholders to assess the Company's performance, business model and strategy.

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