On April 23, 2009, the Bretton Woods Committee, in conjunction with Deloitte, the Group of Thirty and Boston University's Morin Center for Finance Law held a symposium on Global Financial Reform. Throughout the event, panelists and participant covered topics including too big to fail, regulation and future crisis prevention.
Panelists:
Sheila C. Bair
Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Paul A. Volcker
Chairman, White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board
Richard Neiman
Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York
Robert Kelly
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Bank of New York Mellon
Andrew Crockett
President, JP Morgan Chase International
John Dugan
Comptroller of the Currency
Jim Leach
Professor, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
The event began with a discussion centered around international financial institutions. Here it was pointed out that the G20 made real progress toward international financial cooperation. We are in the process of global fragmentation because regulatory action at home has taken priority over international regulation. Government interventions and governments are delivering messages to keep capital at home.
The second panel of the day focused on critical elements of reform in the United States that would lead to effective change. This panel presented views from academia, the federal government and corporations. All of the panelists agreed that consolidation of agencies and regulators was necessary across the board.
Panel three's theme was new policies and enhancements for assuring stability, and all agreed that the crisis started with limited market discipline and misaligned incentives.
During the luncheon portion of the event, Paul Volcker gave a keynote speech on reform and the role of banks. He stressed that the collapse of the markets was a wakeup call and that immediate action was needed. He pointed out that financial stability was the starting point from which individual players must act together in order to succeed.
Audio clips and transcript forthcoming.