What regulation means for traders: Less freedom, more work, new skills

Post-crisis regulation tends to be spoken about in pretty cold, impersonal terms – the pressure on bid-offer spreads or return-on-equity, for example.

It’s easy to forget there is another type of impact – on the people who work in these markets – but UBS gave a pointed reminder of that when announcing its decision to exit the fixed-income business at the end of October. The cold, institutional language was there: the press release announced a ‘strategic acceleration from a position of strength’