The Deputy Governor discusses the arguments for greater harmonisation and co-ordination of securities supervision, analogous to the measures that have been taken in banking regulation, and suggests some directions in which progress might be made, at both the bilateral and the multilateral level, in the years ahead. He stresses that, while a greater convergence of standards is desirable, there must be realistic expectations of the degree of progress likely over the next few years. The immediate priority is to continue the work under way to explore the current structure of regulatory responsibility: only when this is accomplished can efforts begin to fill any gaps and agree the allocation of supervisory responsibility. In the meantime, other steps can be taken to tackle risks in securities trading-particularly counterparty risk, where improvements in settlement arrangements can reduce the fear that a failure of one house will bring down others with it.
The co-ordination of regulation - Speech by the Deputy Governor