ICFR Newsletter - November 2011

Few people recognised that the repercussions of the 2007-09 financial crisis would continue to reverberate and deepen through 2011, let alone that the lack of recognisable systemic change would give rise to the now global Occupy Wall Street movement. The immediate risk among both the financial community and policy makers is a version of combat fatigue; continued pressure, increased workloads, and limited resources strain the ability of those concerned to manage the immediate challenges of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, weak economic growth, and the implementation of vast changes in regulatory frameworks.

The ICFR remains committed to giving members access to information and tools that help them manage through the tsunami of issues confronting them. To that end, this newsletter gives you highlights of our  Annual Regulatory Summit held in Berlin for those too busy to attend, a  user’s guide to studies on the economic impact of regulatory change to enable you to interpret these studies and draw your own conclusions, and a selection of other recent items from our website. As we have done previously, you will receive our summary of this year’s regulatory developments and our outlook for 2012 just after the holidays. In addition to this periodic newsletter, we will start circulating before year end a weekly summary of regulatory news, containing the key items and commentary from our website, enabling you to keep pace with all that is happening.

Membership of the ICFR permits us to continue such work but also allows you to access the exclusive member content area of the website, to participate in members only events, and have a voice in shaping the ICFR‘s overall agenda. If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of membership, please contact:  freddie.hospedales@icffr.org.

We have recently launched the  ICFR PhD Network for students focusing their research on financial regulation. This collaborative network will allow students to interact globally with their peers, regulators and practitioners, working on similar topics of research. The first workshop of the ICFR PhD Network, hosted by the Bank of England, will take place in the first quarter of 2012.

We are proud to be running the  ICFR-FT Research Prize for the third consecutive year. The final submission date for essays on the topic of ‘What does good regulation look like? is on 20 December 2011. We have an active  programme of events, including a major event in Hong Kong on 8 December 2011 on  Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets, with a London version of this conference to be held in January 2012, as well as research programmes on  Regulatory Capture and on  Future Risks and Fragilities for Financial Stability, which will both lead to London-based conferences on these respective subjects in the first quarter of 2012. To view our events programme, please  click here. To view our research programme, please  click here.

We are also pleased to announce two significant additions to our  International Advisory Council: Usha Thorat, from the Centre for Advanced Financial Learning, Reserve Bank of India and Margaret Cole, from the Financial Services Authority, who will help us ensure our agenda remains relevant on a global basis.

And last of all, here are three new titles you might find useful:

• Goodhart, C., (2011). The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision: A History of the Early Year 1974-1997. Cambridge University Press.

• Wittenbrink, A., (2011). Financial Regulation through New Liquidity Standards and Implications for Institutional Banks: Basel III. Grin Verlag.

• Buckley, A., (2011). Financial Crisis: Causes, Context and Consequences. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall.

Please  click here to read our reviews.

As ever, we rely on our members to ensure that our events and research remain suited to their needs, and we welcome your views.
 
Barbara Ridpath
Chief Executive