UK: the scope of the Parliamentary banking inquiry - some comments from Lord Turner

The Financial Services Authority held its annual public meeting today. Lord Turner, the FSA's chairman, spoke about the changes in regulation and supervision the FSA has implemented over recent years: see here. Lord Turner also questioned again the value of certain investment bank activities and offered his view as to the remit of the Parliamentary Joint Committee inquiry into banking standards, the formation of which was announced yesterday by the Government. He argued that a major area of focus should be how banks "... rededicate their business to a focus on fundamental economic functions – raising capital for companies creating real wealth, managing customer risks rather than creating new risks to bet against, and how to purge the industry of the culture of cynical entitlement which was far too prevalent before the crisis". These matters overlap with the Kay Review, the final report of which is expected by the end of the summer.