pro.manchester is a great organisation with a great executive team and I have a great job. It’s true, I do. Friends caution not to make it so obvious I enjoy the job so much but really I can’t help it. Tuesday last week was a typical example. The day started with an excellent workshop on Bio tech, Med tech, Clean tech, Green tech, Any tech with Martino Picardo at UMIC, (blog post will follow once I have written up my copious notes), then on the train to the City Banquet in the evening with the City Lord Mayor and Lord Turner making a keynote speech on the future of the FSA. It was a grand occasion, it was on TV, I along with three hundred city grandees was there.
It was my first visit to the Mansion House in over twenty years, the last time was to receive the Guardian Young Businessman of the year award in 1986. It brought back some great memories.
Lord Turner’s keynote speech dealt with the partition of the FSA following the banking crisis and the perceived failure of the tripartite regulatory system.
Nick Anstey the Lord Mayor made some poignant cautionary remarks on regulation and concerns about over regulation, the fear of flight by some of our key institutions, and the valuable contribution of the financial sector to the health of the economy. The tax contribution from the financial sector at twelve per cent of total revenues, is more than funding the debt interest, it is a telling point.
I have a penchant for acronyms and the occasion was a great opportunity to update my vocabulary, already familiar with SIVS and conduits, SIFIS rather took me by surprise much more than the FPC, the PRA and the CPMA. Lord Turner explained Basel 3 and the requirement for Counter cyclical buffers on the SIFIS which sounds as if it will require delicate surgery.
The new regulatory macro prudential framework is designed to end boom and bust, excessive credit, excessive leverage, off balance sheet conduits, the abolition of exotics, the next LTCM, real estate bubbles, high LTV’s and any asset price spiral imaginable. The methodology appears to be a curfew around the punchbowl by the FPC supported by the MA in the CPMA. My concern is there appeared to be no reference to Dutch Tulip bulbs and the madness of crowds in the attempt to block out future shadow options in the system.
Pre.emptive regulation is everywhere and all, “Jack the Ripper has left the city and the elders are being shackled to ensure there are no more murders”. The FSA has been accused of failure and has been hung drawn and quartered (well halved) in the process.
It was a great occasion. Lord Turner was heckled last year before the interloper could be finally evicted. This year there was no recurrence. He appeared to place great faith in the Master of Ceremonies and his assertion there are no hecklers in the audience on the evening.
Which rather begs the question, did he say the say the same thing last year when indeed there was a heckler in the audience. If this is the case the assertion this year is without value. If last year he did not make the assertion, then it raises the question, why not? did he know there was a heckler in the audience and didn’t say anything. It merits regulatory enquiry. JKA
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