Max Watson, a former Director of the Central Bank of Ireland and senior official of the IMF, argues that the capture of regulators by the financial sector led to 'serious trespasses against the public interest in the last two decades.'.
In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, questions have arisen about the effectiveness of the state as a regulator. Yet with pressures almost everywhere on public expenditure, governments will have strong incentives to pursue public policy goals through regulatory channels rather than spending programmes. This talk will examine the common questions and challenges across industries, including an increasingly interactive context of regulation, new concerns about regulatory capture, and increased risks that policy-driven initiatives could give rise to contingent liabilities over time.
