FCA admits to meeting Aramco before proposing new listing rules

FCA admits to meeting Aramco before proposing new listing rules:

"The head of the City watchdog has admitted that he met with Saudi Aramco in early 2017, before the regulator published proposals that have been criticised for watering down governance rules in order to attract what will be the world’s biggest initial public offering when the oil company lists some of its shares. It is the first public admission from the Financial Conduct Authority that it met with the oil giant before coming out with its proposals in July. The acknowledgement came as two parliamentary select committees wrote to the FCA to demand answers about the level of government influence over the proposals, as London vies with cities such as New York to win the Aramco flotation. “We can confirm that we held conversations with Saudi Aramco and their advisers in light of their interest in a possible UK listing in the early part of this year. We emphasised during those conversations that we were reviewing the Listing Regime,” Andrew Bailey, the head of the FCA, wrote in a letter published on Friday to the Treasury and Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy committees."



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