IDEAfirst Europe

The IDEAfirst research and consultancy product is designed to act as a vital link between top policymakers and the financial markets, providing our clients with unrivalled intelligence on the forward-looking policymaking environment and its likely impact on financial markets.

Building on IDEAglobal’s reputation for independent actionable research, IDEAfirst’s value proposition lies in combining monetary and macro of economic policy insights gathered in regular face-to-face meetings with policymakers, as well as an understanding of what is already priced into the financial markets. It is the fusing together of a clear grasp of policy issues with both economic and market analysis that truly differentiates our product from other consultancy services. This is only possible by leveraging the outstanding reputation of a 60-person research team.

As a client of IDEAfirst Europe you will have

·        Access to our premium research product with regular high-level updates on topical issues in the European arena 

·        This service focuses not only on the ECB, BOE, SNB and Riksbank but also on the major policy and political issues in the G7 sphere from a European perspective  

·        More importantly, clients have access to our senior economists/ analysts who will be able to succinctly tailor IDEAfirst’s understanding of the policy environment to your requirements thereby maximising trading or investment opportunities

IDEAfirst Europe builds not only on our unrivalled access to key policymakers but also on the reputations of the most senior advisors to our board, Sir Nick Stern and Professor Helmut Schlesinger). IDEAfirst’s key advisors and economists help to provide policymakers with a close understanding of the main issues, expectations and misconceptions in the financial markets. This is enhanced by our independence and objectivity, as IDEAfirst does not manage money. This bridge between the financial community and central bankers helps policymakers to better shape forward-looking policy and communications.  

IDEAfirst Europe has helped highlight market misperceptions of central bankers in many cases, and one example is with respect to the ECB ahead of the December 2006 meeting. Financial market expectations had been orientated towards the ECB completing it’s normalisation cycle at 3.5%, whereas IDEAfirst clearly highlighted that the ECB’s tightening cycle was destined towards a 4.0% benchmark rate, at least. 

IDEAfirst clients in the hedge fund, prop desk and reserve management community have benefited from our policy insights and, should you wish to discuss how this can be of significant added value to your organisation, please contact Mike Gallagher, Director of G7 Research, on +44 20 7664 0200 or mgallagher@ideaglobal.com.