Treasury Committee report a useful contribution, says BBA

[Legal Beagles]

The Treasury Committee%26rsquo;s latest report on the financial crisis is right to highlight problems in the City%26rsquo;s rules and practices, said the British Bankers%26rsquo; Association.

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[Amethyst]

Re: Treasury Committee report a useful contribution, says BBA

Interesting comment frm the BBA I thought

BBA add to the debate on self-regulation and industry-led compliance
The BBA this week responded to an OFT discussion paper on self-regulation and industry-led compliance, which discusses whether industry-developed consumer codes should have a greater role in delivering better consumer protection. We highlighted the current fragmented landscape in retail banking - the fact that responsibility for regulation and enforcement rests with various different bodies results in a lot of overlap. Given the recent raft of new regulations, and with banking coming under greater legislative scrutiny, we told the OFT that we would regard self-regulation as an anomaly in financial services regulation, particularly in the context of the current economic crisis.
We have outlined three key characteristics of a successful regulatory regime: (i) agreed minimum standards that provide adequate 'safe-harbours' for industry; (ii) a closer working relationship between regulators/enforcers in agreeing the standards required to meet important principles, particularly fairness to consumers and establishing consumer responsibilities; and (iii) regulation without hindsight, meaning that businesses should not be expected to review past business according to current requirements (also FOS should apply its alternative dispute resolution role when judging complaints against the standards in force at the time of a sale). Should you have any questions regarding the BBA's response to the OFT, or wish to see a copy of the submission,..