The Regulators’ Revolt
Britain's Conservative government recently sought a "call-in" power that would authorize it “to direct a regulator to make, amend or revoke rules.” But facing full frontal opposition to the plan from the regulators themselves, the government found itself in a hole – and wisely stopped digging.
LONDON – When I chaired the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA), in those prelapsarian days before the 2008 global financial crisis, I was regularly asked by financiers who resented our intrusions into their profitable lives, “Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?” Who guards the guards?