Lord Eatwell to speak on risk and regulation

Former UK regulator to speak at OpRisk Europe

LONDON - Lord Eatwell, a former top UK regulator, and now an author and a professor at Cambridge, will address questions raised by current market events at the 10th annual OpRisk Europe event in London on April 9.

Eatwell is a director of the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance, and professor of financial policy at the Judge Business School.

In 1997, he joined the board of the Securities and Futures Authority (SFA), Britain’s securities markets regulator, until the end of 2001, serving on the enforcement committee and the capital committee. In this position he developed his interest in securities regulation, particularly with respect to risk management in financial institutions. His latest publications in this field are Global Finance at Risk: The Case for International Regulation and Global Governance of Financial Systems: The Legal and Economic Regulation of Systemic Risk.

Operational risk concerns are climbing up the agenda of most financial institutions today, and the turnout at OpRisk Europe is expected to be record-breaking. Events such as the Société Générale rogue trading scandal, the Bear Stearns meltdown, and the subprime crisis in general have raised calls for a change in the way banks, insurers and asset managers are regulated. Pundits are expecting a new wave of regulation to hit London and New York over the next 12 months, as part of the fallout from the credit crisis.

Also speaking on recent events is Sergio Scandizzo, head of the operational risk section at the European Investment Bank. He will speak on “Micromotives and macrobehaviours: from operational risk to a credit crisis”, and “Operational risk as management of risk management: the way ahead”.