COMMENT The consultation document authored by Sir David Walker, the former regulator and investment banker, on the governance of financial institutions follows other reports led by senior City figures, including Financial Services Authority chairman Adair Turner on banking regulation and Sir Win Bischoff, former Citigroup chairman, on London’s global competitiveness.
What is the military for?
Join the debate
The combined results are exactly what you would expect from asking a group of practitioners how to rectify faults that were of their own industry’s making. Their ideas are practical, sensible but, despite squeals from an industry that does not wish to appear to be getting off too lightly, uncontroversial. They are supportive of the financial services industry’s structure and locus, not questioning of it. They reflect the authors’ provenance in concentrating on making a better fist of the system that has failed rather than considering alternative structures and wider options.
