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ARTICLE · 20 JULY 2012

The Oxford Project: A View from the Trenches

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The suggestion that gatekeeper rules should apply widely to participants in the financial markets is a problematic idea.

AustraliaFinance and Banking
Andrew Lumsden
Andrew Lumsden
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The idea that professionalising the financial services sector could somehow improve market integrity is an idea worthy of debate. But, the suggestion that gatekeeper rules ought to apply to a wide sweep of participants in the financial markets is a problematic idea and may miss the point.

Gatekeeper theory might seem like an idea for our times, but as with Coffee's post-Enron formulations of the idea; it is an idea that has some serious limitations. Would more gatekeepers have helped JP Morgan to better manage risk (and their oversight) or have helped the Centro shareholders?

It seems that everyone from Commonwealth members of parliament to ASIC is looking for a set of rules that will deliver better ethical behaviour by holding individuals to account. Unfortunately the theory might not deliver the ethical outcome that they seek. Do we really think a focus on responsibility alone will achieve the right outcome? The debate thus framed is a bit one dimensional

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