Financial services executives sceptical of regulation wave

Nearly half of the executives at banking and financial institutions believe regulation has failed to ensure industry stability. All the same, opinions have grown more positive over the last three years, a new international survey has found.

Just two per cent of the senior executives polled in 25 countries thought regulatory changes since the 2008 financial crisis had fully addressed the risk of another crash, according to Kinetic Partners, a regulatory consultancy.

"Regulators alone cannot rebuild trust and ensure stability in financial services," said Ann Marie Croswell, partner at Kinetic in Hong Kong.

She said, while politicians and governments had a responsibility to improve levels of financial education in their respective jurisdictions, it was clear that financial institutions also had an important role in winning back public confidence and ensuring transparency in their operations and governance.

The survey of 283 professionals and executives found they believed that recent regulation had little or no impact on financial stability. Eleven per cent of participants even said that increased regulation had made the financial services field less stable.

"If the financial services industry has not grown to love regulation, it is growing to accept it," the report said.

Julian Korek, Kinetic's chief executive, noted: "While attitudes to regulation have softened over the past two years, it appears that confidence is limited among financial services firms that the lessons of the crisis have really been learned ... the fact that so many still think there is potential for another crash is worrying."

This is an edited version of a report first published by the Compliance Complete Service of Thomson Reuters Accelus.