LORD TURNER: REFORM UK REGULATORY FRAMEWORK AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 LONDON 000723

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON EFIN ETRD EINV UK
SUBJECT: LORD TURNER: REFORM UK REGULATORY FRAMEWORK AND
END LIGHT TOUCH REGULATION

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1. (SBU) Summary: Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial
Services Authority (FSA),recommended an overhaul of the
UK's regulatory regime and an end to its "light touch"
approach to supervision, in his review of the causes of
crisis and recommendations for strengthening the banking
sector. Turner stressed the importance of reforming
capital adequacy and liquidity requirements, introducing
macro-prudential analysis, and overhauling the FSA's
regulatory approach ? making it more intrusive and more
systemic. He called for reforms to remuneration
structures, credit rating agencies, and off-balance sheet
vehicles and introduced the idea of product regulation.
Reaction to the report was mixed. Banking and business
groups largely welcomed his ideas while the Liberal
Democrats and unions dismissed them as being more
rhetoric than substance. His review, published March 18,
is likely to be used as the basis for the UK's
negotiations at the upcoming G20 Summit. End summary.

Background
--------------


2. (SBU) Lord Turner, chairman of the FSA, was asked by
Chancellor Darling in October 2008 to review the causes
of the current financial crisis and to make
recommendations on the changes in regulation and
supervisory approach needed to create a more robust
banking system. His review, published March 18, is part
of the UK's attempt to set the global regulatory agenda
for both the G7 and G20 groups and is likely to be used
as the basis for the UK's negotiations with the G20 April

2. Turner's recommendations would overhaul the UK's
financial regulatory regime and end its "light-touch"
approach. His report identified three underlying causes
of the crisis: macroeconomic imbalances, financial
innovation of little social value, and deficiencies in
bank capital and liquidity regulations. It proposed
recommendations to reform all aspects of regulation from
capital and liquidity to remuneration structures.

Capital and Liquidity Recommendations
--------------


3. (U) Turner's report stressed the importance of
reforms to capital adequacy and liquidity requirements in
creating a sounder banking system. It called for
increased quantity and quality of bank capital, with a
focus on Tier 1 and Tier 2 capital for systemically
important banks, allowing the banking system to better
absorb future shocks. Additionally, Turner recommended
an intensification of liquidity regulation and
supervision to contain liquidity risks through the
creation of counter-cyclical capital buffers, with
capital levels increasing during booms and decreasing in
recessions. This, Turner said, would stabilize the
banking system through the cycle. He also discussed
introducing measures to avoid the procyclicality in Basel
2 implementation.

Macro-Prudential Analysis
--------------


4. (U) A system-wide macro-prudential perspective is
vitally important to prevent a repeat of the current
crisis, according to the report. Turner suggests the G20
leaders will need to turn high-level commitments to
improved early warning systems, surveillance and peer
review into robust international arrangements which
empower the IMF to produce independent analysis of
system-wide risks. Macro-prudential analysis should
identify trends in the economy and the financial system
which have implications for financial and macroeconomic
stability. In the UK, prior to this crisis, there was an
"underlap" of supervision such that neither the Bank of
England nor the FSA looked at system-wide risks. The FSA
focused on the supervision of individual institutions
while the Bank focused on monetary policy analysis
without forming policy responses to offset the risks
identified. Going forward, Turner recommended the Bank
of England and FSA work together to conduct macroeconomic
analysis and gather insight from specific institutions
and business model analysis.

FSA Supervision: More Intrusive, More Systemic
-------------- -


5. (U) A principles-based, light-touch approach to
regulation and supervision will be replaced with

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"intensive supervision." The FSA will devote more
resources to supervising high impact firms, with
increasingly frequent comprehensive risk reviews. Its
supervisory style will shift from focusing on systems and
processes to focusing on business outcomes, risk and the
sustainability of business models. The FSA will have
more intense contact with bank management and auditors in
relation to public accounts and accounting judgment.
Turner said the FSA will need to understand the assets
and liabilities in bank balance sheets at a greater level
of detail so it can properly understand business model
risks.

Other Recommendations
--------------


6. (U) Turner set out a number of other recommendations
in the report from remuneration policies to potential
product regulation:

-- Remuneration policies should be designed to avoid
incentives for undue risk taking. The FSA will examine
the risk consequences of remuneration policies during its
overall risk assessments. It will enforce principles
that align remuneration policies with appropriate risk
management.

-- Glass-Steagall type legislation that would enforce a
greater institutional separation between commercial and
investment banks is not needed. Turner said such a
separation is not practical in today's complex global
economy, nor is it clear it would radically reduce
banking system risks.

-- The FSA will start consultations on the possibility of
regulating products in both retail and wholesale markets.
It will consider introducing maximum loan-to-value ratios
or loan-to income ratios for mortgages and regulating
wholesale market products that can adversely impact
financial stability.

-- Regulation should focus on economic substance, not
legal form. Off-balance sheet vehicles which create
substantive economic risk must be treated like on-balance
sheet for regulatory purposes. Regulators should be
given the power to apply prudential regulation to hedge
funds if their activities become bank-like in nature or
systemic in importance.

-- The FSA supports legislation currently being
formulated in the EU that will require credit rating
agencies (CRAs)to register with and be supervised by
financial regulators, coordinated at a European level via
colleges. Turner said supervisory oversight should
require CRAs to only accept assignments where a
consistent rating could be produced.

Reaction: Useful vs. Too Watered Down
--------------


7. (SBU) Turner's report was widely welcomed by business
groups. A rush to legislation would have risked a repeat
of a Sarbanes-Oxley type over-reaction, compounding the
effects of the recession, according to the Confederation
of British Industry (CBI). It praised Turner for
producing targeted proposals dealing with specific
failings and risks to the whole system, rather than
responding to wilder calls for action against banks. The
British Bankers' Association (BBA) told us the report was
useful because it injects a practical element into the
issues discussed within the various international fora.
Paul Chisnall, the BBA's executive director of financial
policy, said the BBA recognizes that work needs to be
undertaken in the regulatory sphere to prevent another
financial crisis on this scale. He told us the areas
discussed in the report are mostly valid areas of
consideration and that the BBA has no qualms with
expanding the scope of regulation. The BBA encouraged
the introduction of a macro-prudential element to
supervision, making the financial sector more aware of
broader systemic threats. Chisnall was particularly
pleased Turner did not see any need for the introduction
of Glass-Steagall type legislation. But despite its
broad approval of the report, the BBA is eager for more
discussion and consultation. Chisnall cautioned against
veering too close to the headlines and introducing reform
because an issue receives significant press attention.
This is particularly true of potential regulation

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governing mortgage products. He said the FSA needs to be
careful not to create a rigid structure that is anti-
competitive.


8. (SBU) In contrast, other groups thought the
regulatory chief had not gone far enough, arguing the
whole regulatory framework should be restructured in the
wake of such a widespread crisis. Vince Cable, Shadow
Chancellor for the Liberal Democrats, dismissed the
review saying it was "little more than a watered down
summary of policy changes" his party has been demanding
for years. He criticized Turner's decision to not call
for the separation of low-risk retail banks from high-
risk investment banks. The UK's largest union, Unite,
was equally unimpressed by the report, saying its recipe
of "more rhetoric than substance" would do nothing to
reassure bank customers or staff. Unite's national
officer, Rob MacGregor, said the report leaves key issues
unresolved and HMG and the FSA should be brave enough to
set out a new radical regulatory framework.

LEBARON