When we last interviewed John Gunn, Chairman and Founder of Global Investment Strategy, he reflected on a career that began shortly before Black Monday in 1987 and on the principles behind the creation of GIS.
Four years later, the industry has moved on again. The UK has introduced a new listing regime, firms are preparing for shorter settlement cycles, and technology continues to change trading and post-trade operations. With GIS launching its new website, it seemed an appropriate time to continue the conversation: what has changed, what do clients now expect, and why do relationships still matter?
It has been four years since our previous interview. What have been the most significant developments for GIS?
The business has continued to evolve, but the original purpose remains relevant. We established GIS because smaller professional firms, institutional clients and family offices were not always well served by the largest investment banks. They needed serious market access and infrastructure, but they also wanted to be treated as important clients.
What has become increasingly clear is that execution cannot always be considered in isolation. A client may also need clearing, custody, reporting or help with the operational side of entering a particular market. Our job is to understand the complete requirement, be clear about where we can add value and then deliver reliably.
Our presence in London and Hong Kong gives us an international perspective across different markets and trading hours. The precise needs vary from one client to another, but responsiveness remains central to the relationship.
The new website gives the GIS team much greater prominence. Why was that important?
Because financial services are ultimately delivered by people. A website can provide a long list of capabilities, but a prospective client also wants to know who understands the service, who will look after the relationship and who will answer when something needs attention.
GIS has experience across trading, operations, clearing and custody, asset management, capital markets, compliance and legal matters. We wanted the website to reflect that properly. It should give clients a clearer picture of the business, but also make it easier to identify the people responsible for each area.
You entered the City shortly before Black Monday and have since worked through several periods of upheaval. Has that experience changed how you view market predictions?
It has made me cautious about anyone claiming to know exactly what markets will do next.
Every major disruption has had different causes, but the same basic weaknesses tend to be exposed: poor controls, excessive concentration, fragile funding or an overreliance on assumptions that only hold in normal conditions.
The firms that cope best are generally those with reliable counterparties, experienced people and the ability to remain calm when markets become disorderly. Technology is essential, but experience still matters when the usual process stops working.
Has technology made the traditional broker-client relationship less important?
No. Technology has made standard transactions quicker and more efficient, but that can make human support more valuable when something falls outside the standard process.
A system may handle an ordinary instruction perfectly well, but the real test comes when a client encounters a settlement exception, needs access to a less-familiar market, or requires an informed response during a volatile session. Clients do not want to discover at that point that their provider is difficult to reach or that nobody has taken ownership of the problem.
A broker should add more than an electronic route into the market. The value comes from understanding the client, maintaining strong counterpart relationships and identifying potential difficulties early.
What role do you expect artificial intelligence and greater automation to play in financial markets?
There are clear potential applications in areas such as reporting, reconciliation, monitoring and data analysis. Used properly, these tools should reduce repetitive work, improve accuracy and help experienced staff focus on exceptions and decisions that require judgement.
But automation does not remove responsibility: someone must understand the data, the system’s limitations, and the consequences for the client. I am interested in technology that removes friction and improves service, rather than technology being introduced simply because it is fashionable.
Regulation has continued to develop since 2022. Has the balance between market integrity and competitiveness improved?
Regulation is a challenge for every market participant, but it has to be embraced. Clients need confidence that their assets are protected, firms have appropriate controls, and markets operate with integrity.
The difficulty is maintaining those standards without creating unnecessary complexity or making it disproportionately expensive for smaller regulated firms to compete. A very large institution can spread the cost of compliance and technology across an enormous business. Smaller firms do not have the same advantage.
The right objective is strong, proportionate regulation: rules that protect clients and the market while allowing responsible firms to innovate and grow. The UK’s reputation has been built partly on confidence in its regulatory framework, so competitiveness should not mean weakening that confidence.
In 2024, the FCA replaced the old premium and standard listing segments with a simplified regime intended to make London more competitive. Do you think the changes went far enough?
Reforming the rules was a positive acknowledgement that London has to compete for listings. However, the decision to list is not determined by the rulebook alone – companies also consider valuation, liquidity, the availability of capital, research coverage and the depth of investor interest.
London still has substantial strengths: an international investor base, experienced advisers, respected market infrastructure and a large professional-services community. The challenge is to bring those strengths together and give good companies a compelling reason not only to list here, but to remain here as they grow.
The UK is scheduled to move to T+1 settlement in October 2027. What will that mean in practical terms?
A shorter settlement cycle should reduce counterparty exposure and improve efficiency. It will also leave less time to complete allocations, confirm instructions, arrange funding and resolve discrepancies.
That makes T+1 more than a technical project for settlement departments. Investment managers, brokers, custodians, banks and infrastructure providers all need to examine how information and assets move between them. Processes that rely heavily on manual intervention or late instructions will come under greater pressure.
The sensible approach is to prepare early, test the complete process and speak to counterparties. Firms do not want to discover weaknesses during the final stages of implementation.
What distinguishes a valuable financial-services relationship from a purely transactional one?
It comes down to whether the provider understands the client and takes responsibility for delivering the service. Competitive pricing matters, but it is rarely the whole answer.
Large institutions have considerable scale, although that scale can make it difficult to provide close attention to clients whose requirements do not fit a standard model. GIS aims to combine appropriate market access and infrastructure with direct access to experienced people.
We do not need to be everything to everyone. We need to be clear about what we do, execute it well and remain available when the client needs us.
More than two decades after GIS was established, what has remained unchanged?
Markets change, regulation changes and technology changes, but trust does not work quite like that. It is still built gradually, through consistent service and by doing what you say you will do.
When I started in the industry, relationships were central to the way the City operated – “My word is my bond” is the historic motto of the London Stock Exchange. The methods of communication and execution are now completely different, but clients still value judgement, integrity and the knowledge that somebody will take ownership when an issue arises.
That is not a marketing proposition that can be created overnight. It is a reputation earned over time, and it remains the foundation on which GIS has been built.
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