A FORMER regulator turned consultant said financial institutions should better define "proper conduct", by weeding out toxic sub-cultures and drawing clear paths for staff to call out wrongdoing.

This comes amid recent high-profile financial blowups that have exposed risk management flaws of financial institutions.

It may not be feasible to set up new safeguards only after each scandal unfolds "because then you will have a rule book that is extremely thick, with a lot of specific do's and don'ts", Deloitte's Southeast Asia regulatory risk leader Wong Nai Seng told The Business Times in an interview.