April 24, 2009

We deserve something different than the current crop of regulators

Sir Timothy Geithner in “We must keep at the process of repair and reform” April 24 mentions that “the Financial Stability Forum, renamed the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and expanded to include all of the G20 nations, should be given greater responsibility for the stability of the international financial system. And that is the problem with the current crop of regulators. Who told them that the only thing we look for is stability? We want a well functioning financial sector with a much more meaningful purpose that stability.

Look at what the search for stability and lowering of risks with the minimum capital requirements designed by the Basel Committee and the appointment of the credit rating agencies as the risk sentries of the world has taken us? The Basel Committee and the members of FSB all come from exactly the same regulatory incestuous gene-pool. We deserve better results, and this can only be achieved by a new and much more diversified set of regulators.