WH Ireland boss says good times are back for small City firms

The boss of WH Ireland, the venerable City firm, today said small-cap broking was “quite buoyant”, defying the downturn caused by dwindling commissions and potentially crippling new regulations.

Richard Killingbeck said the pipeline of deals was “probably the strongest it’s been for two or three years”.

“There’s a lot of concern about what’s going on in Europe. It doesn’t directly affect this area of the market but indirectly if things really do start to slow down then it will do,” he added.

WH Ireland, which like its rivals is preparing for the introduction of the MiFID II regulation next year, revealed a “significant improvement” in trading in the first six months from its corporate broking and wealth management arms.