APRA chair Wayne Byres has a message for bankers complaining about the growing burden of regulation: come up with some self-regulatory initiatives as an alternative way of achieving better outcomes.Byres said self-regulation still has an essential role to play in the financial system but its failings needed to be addressed.Speaking at a conference hosted by the Banking and Finance Oath and FINSIA in Sydney yesterday, Byres said: "We still too often see in the financial sector a failure to self-regulate in a manner that appropriately balances the interests of all stakeholders."He said that despite the toughening of regulatory practice post-Hayne, the regulatory framework is founded on the premise that boards and executives are ultimately responsible for the activities and performance of their companies."The optimal model of financial regulation - lowest cost, best outcomes - therefore requires self-regulation to play its part."Byres said the increase in formal regulation was, in part, a consequence of weak self-regulation."Undoubtedly, this additional regulation comes at a cost and industry complaints about regulatory burden are increasingly being heard again. Thus far, however, not much has been offered as an alternative means of generating better outcomes."He pointed to the fact that ASIC had been warning the industry about problems with consumer credit insurance since 2011, but industry did not do enough to address those problems.He said APRA had urged industry to take steps to address poorly designed incentives in remuneration packages, without much response. Instead the regulator is developing a stronger prudential standard."A better solution, which I urged some time ago, would have been for industry participants to take up the challenge and not wait for regulatory intervention. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of some, stronger regulation seems unavoidable."He said a recent round of reviews and updates of industry codes was a positive trend but it had "taken too long for the penny to drop.""The real evidence of change will be when industry participants are willing to stand against the tide, or even better stand up and call each other out for behaviour that damages the industry's reputation and long-term standing."We often hear executives complain they would like to curb a certain practice or stop selling a particular product but would suffer first mover disadvantage. This was a classic excuse in APRA's intervention in mortgage lending."