The European Union has reached agreement on reforms to financial supervision, agreeing to create agencies that from next year are to oversee banks, insurers and financial markets.
Europe’s move follows on the sweeping Wall Street reforms that President Barack Obma signed into law in July. The deal has yet to be approved by European finance ministers and the European Parliament but it is hoped that the agreements in Europe and the US will help stop a repeat of the financial crisis in which loose supervision of companies was blamed for contributing to problems.
However, Christopher Wasserman, President and Founder of the Zermatt Summit, which is campaigning for greater transparency, accountability and responsibility in business, believes that further legislation will not help unless business leaders take responsibility and behave more ethically.
Wasserman said: “Good governance should be at the heart of any business organisation and adding further regulation will increase the cost burden to tax payers but will not address the root cause of the problems which have caused such turmoil in the world’s economy this past year.
He continued: “I see this is a fundamental requirement for stability and growth to return to the world markets as the continued loss of confidence is hurting our economies, and ultimately the root cause is loss of trust which has fallen to an all time low and could fall further, due to the high risk approach to debt, leading to a collapse in trust of our political and business leaders.”
ACQ Magazine