In the wake of the credit crunch, regulators and industry groups have been falling over themselves to prevent similar problems from occurring again. The plans include reining in bankers’ pay, restructuring government regulators and redoing rating and accounting methods for complex financial instruments. But only a handful of these proposals will ever come to fruition.

The US Treasury’s plan to completely reorganise US financial services regulation appears to be dead in the water, though a revamped proposal could appear after the November election settles control of the White House and Congress. Meanwhile, regulators are pushing hard for the industry to align bankers’ pay with long-term growth rather than short-term results. But voluntary efforts, such as the recent proposals from the Institute of International Finance, are likely to fall short without an official mandate to back them up. The incentive to ignore guidelines in order to attract and retain top people is just too high.