When asset management groups struggling to comply with the recent blizzard of regulation hit a detail they don’t understand they must often long for an explanation. Many are hiring experts or seeking outside help, but there cannot be many better advisers on what the new rules really mean than the person who wrote many of them.

Sheila Nicoll, who spent five and a half years at the Financial Services Authority, has been at Ernst & Young since September, advising clients on British and European policy and regulation.