Below is a statement from Anthony Belchambers, CEO of the Futures & Options Association (FOA) re US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s comment reported in today’s Financial Times:
“The Futures & Options Association understands US concerns over the risk of business migration as a result of setting exacting regulatory standards and welcomes the drive for regulatory consensus. However, US Secretary Geithner is wrong to cite the “tragic” example of UK “light touch” regulation as a way of resisting a differentiated approach to US regulation.
The FOA believes that supervisory failures were in evidence across many authorities and singling out individual jurisdictions is unhelpful in working towards a regulatory consensus – a consensus which may not, in all cases, mean a US regulatory copy out.
Anthony Belchambers, Chief Executive of the Futures & Options Association said:
“US Secretary Geithner’s comments do not appear to take any account of the fact that the SEC, arguably, was an equally tragic failure – and by a regulatory authority that was notably “heavy touch” but also in some areas “no touch”!”
