Balancing the reform of financial services

THE Group of Twenty (G-20) meets this weekend in Brisbane, Australia, in what is hoped will be the last time a significant political impetus is required to set global regulatory reform in financial services firmly on its way.

The key focus of the G-20 agenda will be job creation and growth for a global economy finally moving beyond the shadow of the last global financial crisis. A key component of these discussions will be discussions of key financial services regulatory reform issues to promote financial stability.

These include whether banks "too big to fail" should be required to hold a minimum amount of gone-concern loss absorbing capacity, as well as other issues surrounding shadow banking and international consistency in the regulation of derivatives markets.