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Little progress on reforming financial markets: analysts

The global financial crisis may have sparked calls for markets and governments to be more tightly regulated, but a year after the credit crunch hit, reforms are still a long way off, analysts said.

The reforms would largely target investment banks, which are accused of indiscriminately approving risky loans, then buying or selling financial products linked to these loans, leading to the US subprime market collapse.

Credit rating agencies have also been criticized for contributing to world financial turmoil by not sounding the alarm.

In April, finance ministers of the G7 countries approved a series of recommendations from the Financial Stability Forum to improve the practices of banks and financial markets.

But the recommendations, which aim to improve good practice and transparency, have yet to be executed.

Last month, the European Commission put forward similar measures to supervise credit rating agencies.

“Governments needed to show that they were doing something,” Andrew Haynes, who teaches international banking law at Wolverhampton University in England, said in an interview.

Another ambitious plan, proposed in March by US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to overhaul the US regulatory system and strengthen the US Federal Reserve’s monitoring role has also stalled.

“Nothing will happen until the presidential election,” said Patricia McCoy, a professor of law, banking and securities regulation at Connecticut University.

When US President George W. Bush’s successor is elected, McCoy said she expects “a big, big fight” because “the agencies and investment banks are going to resist” any significant regulation.

But there are other complications. Despite announcing changes to boost transparency, the three main credit rating agencies, Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch, will still be paid by the companies they rate.

A weak set of proposals put forward in June by the US Securities and Exchange Commission is also making little impact.

At the same time, investment banks and credit rating agencies have little to fear from the creation of a new international Committee on Banking Supervision suggested by G7 members that would group regulators from different countries.

“It makes sense to have greater cooperation but I don’t think we’re ready to have one global super-regulator”, McCoy said.
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