Carney to Fix Financial Fault and Build Global Markets

Mark Carney said reform of the financial sector isn’t finished and the Bank of England will continually revisit regulation of banks.
“We want not only to profile progress made, but also to spur a continual process of review and reform,” the Bank of England Governor said. “This isn’t just about fixing the fault lines that caused the last crisis, but also about seizing new opportunities from fintech and market-based finance. It’s about building truly global markets, in the U.K. and elsewhere, and the cross-border governance and cooperation they need to function well.”

Carney was speaking at the central bank’s Open Forum in London on Wednesday, a conference on the role of markets in society that’s being attended by officials, academics, religious leaders and members of the public. It’s part of Carney’s continued effort to overhaul U.K. markets that have been rocked by their roles in the financial crisis and rigging scandals.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is due to make remarks at 1:15 p.m. local time. Carney is due to speak again at 5 p.m. to close proceedings.
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Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne also spoke at the event and said he wanted the U.K. to be the home of the world’s largest financial center. Osborne said officials had to weigh legislation to reform markets against financial firms’ need to take risks, innovate and create jobs.
He also said he recently met with Tim Cook, Apple Inc. chief executive officer and they spent “a lot of time talking about Apple pay.” The U.K. has the technological and financial expertise to become a leader in financial technology, Osborne said.
“Our challenge is to bring the two together,” he said. “We’ve got to create the space where this innovation can happen.”
Carney said the bank was four times oversubscribed for places at the conference. Other speakers include BOE deputy governors Minouche Shafik, Jon Cunliffe, and Andrew Bailey, as well as London Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer Xavier Rolet and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc Chairman Howard Davies.
The conference takes place as U.K. policy makers weigh domestic strength and a strong pound against foreign weakness. The unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent in the third quarter, the lowest in more than seven years, and the number in work rose to a record 31.2 million, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday in London. Economists in a Bloomberg News survey forecast the jobless rate would be unchanged at 5.4 percent.

Source: bloomberg