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The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) is responsible for pushing some of the most far-reaching regulatory reforms in the history of finance. Their reforms have two basic aims: investor protection and risk management. These deceptively simple objectives have created complicated regulatory frameworks – and it truly is a team effort.

What could be more influential than the 2008-9 financial crisis, the financial crisis of the century? The catastrophic event led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and left practically the entire world wondering what went wrong.

Recent years – 2019 in particular – have seen a sea change in the debate on tackling global warming. All of a sudden it seems the environment is on the agenda in places it hadn't been previously – including the financial sector. It now seems incredibly plausible that climate change will be a dictator of policy over the coming decade.

The Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) has the unenviable task of making sure that the transition from US dollar Libor to the more robust Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) – its recommended alternative – goes smoothly, with plenty of time left before Libor's expiration at the end of 2021.

In addition to being the chief executive of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in Hong Kong, Alder is the chairman of the board of the International Organisation of Securities Commission and of the Financial Stability Board's plenary and steering committee.

US President Donald Trump has frequently advertised his dislike of regulation. Financial regulation has proven no exception. In fact, one of his first acts as president was to sign the now-infamous Executive Order 13771, which requires most executive branch agencies to eliminate two regulations for every one added while capping costs; a sweeping policy that has proven costly to fans of stability and security.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – the UK's all-encompassing financial services regulator – is at any point the subject of either praise or derision, depending on the commentator. But there is rarely any middle ground. It has earnt itself the reputation as one of the European Economic Area's most fine-happy enforcers, with a particular penchant for punishing firms over failures to comply with the new wave of reporting requirements.

There's arguably no one more familiar in the European market structure space than Liquidnet's Rebecca Healey. Having been in her role as head of EMEA market structure and strategy for the equities exchange for just three years, Healey has made major waves, positioning herself as the go-to on Mifid II's myriad market structure issues.

The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act may be coming up for its 10th birthday, but the wide-ranging regulation remains as important as ever. The vast Obama-era financial reform came as a direct response to the 2008-9 crisis, which as well as establishing a whole set of new government regulators and agencies designed to protect consumers and financial stability, introduced a range of new requirements designed to keep the US banking system under wraps. The Act faced a lot of criticism and had many adversaries before it even passed, barely scraping through the Senate, and in recent years has faced a barrage of attacks from the incumbent Republican administration.

In the time since she took on the position, the United States House Committee on Financial Services chair Maxine Waters has been a constant irritant for the Trump administration. One of his most outspoken critics, the 80-year old Democratic Representative for California does not take financial issues lightly, and has very much put a dampener on the administration's reform agenda it had managed to push through in the first two years following the 2016 election.