Rebooting Financial Regulation: Ways and Means

Systemic Risk Centre Event
Co-organised with National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) of India

Date: 20th-21st January 2022, online
Time: 08.30 - 12.15 GMT / 14.00 - 17.45 IST
Organisers: Kevin R. James (SRC/LSE), V. R. Narasimhan (NISM)
Speakers: Peter Andrews (Oxera & SRC/LSE), Ajit Balakrishnan (Entrepreneur and columnist), Shri Ananta Barua (SEBI), Amil Dasgupta (LSE), Kevin James (SRC/LSE), Eva Micheler (SRC/LSE), C.K.G. Nair (NISM, FSLRC), M.S. Sahoo (IBBI)

As India’s Financial Sector Legislative Reform Commission (FSLRC) observes, avoiding a gap between the contemporary “requirements of the country and the present legal and regulatory arrangements” of the financial sector is crucial for economic success. In this conference we will explore ways and means to reboot financial regulation to close this gap. On ways to improve financial regulation, we will focus upon:

i) redefining the objectives of financial regulation;

ii) improving conduct regulation;

iii) the impact of technology and financial regulation;

iv) the issues posed by asset management and corporate governance; and

v) legal methods to combat toxic culture in financial institutions.

Of course, good ideas achieve results only if they can be successfully implemented. So, the conference will also examine key issues concerning the architecture of the regulatory system, drawing upon India’s experience with the bold reform effort that the FSLRC began.     

Speaker biographies
 

Peter Andrews (Senior Adviser, Oxera and SRC Associate). Peter chairs the Regulation and Market Design Centre of Excellence at Oxera and works for clients including large financial institutions and the European Commission. Previously he was Chief Economist of the Financial Conduct Authority, where he focused on competition and represented the UK on IOSCO's Risk and Research Committee. Prior to this, he was Head of Economics of Financial Regulation at the Financial Services Authority, where he worked extensively on international reform of prudential regulation following the Great Financial Crisis and cost-benefit analysis. He started his career in the City of London, where he became a Chartered Accountant and Member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment. He holds an MA in Jurisprudence and an MSc in Economics.

Shri Ananta Barua (Whole Time Member, SEBI). Shri Barua looks after Market Intermediaries Regulation and Supervision Department, Department of Debt and Hybrid Securities, Enforcement Department, Legal Affairs Department, Enquiry and Adjudication Department and Board Cell. Prior to this assignment, Shri Barua served as Executive Director in SEBI. He led various departments in SEBI such as Investment Management Department, Department of Debt & Hybrid Securities, Corporate Finance Department, Legal Affairs Department and Enforcement Department. He was instrumental for developing framework for Issue and Listing of Debt Securities, Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), Municipal Bonds, REITs & InvITs etc. Shri Barua was on deputation to Central Bank of Bahrain as Advisor and has also worked with Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI), National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) and DCM Ltd. Mr. Barua is a Commerce Graduate with LLB both from the University of Delhi and a Diploma in Management.

Ajit Balakrishnan (Entrepreneur and Columnist). Founder, Chairman, CEO and Principal Shareholder of rediff.com. He graduated from IIM Calcutta in 1971 with two awards. Ajit's public service roles include: Chairman of the Board of Governors IIM Calcutta for 2 terms of 5 years each (2006-2016), Member of Committee that updated Indian IT Act 2008, personally wrote Section 79 on Intermediaries, Chair of the Ministry of Information Technology Working Group on Internet Governance and Proliferation (2005-2008), Member of Education Ministry's IIM Review Committee 2008 (“IIMs: From great Teaching Institutions to Thought Leadership Centres”), Chair of the Education Ministry's Committee on Online Education, 2010, Chair of the Education Ministry's Committee on National Education Policy SubCommittee on Higher Education and Employment (2020). Mr. Balakrishnan grew up in a small town called "Kannur" in the Malabar Coast of Kerala and is the son and grandson of medical doctors. Ajit is passionate about Machine Learning and spends 3+ hours a day writing code (Python and R). He wrote The Wave Rider, A Chronicle of the Information Age, Macmillan.

Amil Dasgupta (Professor of Finance, LSE Finance). Amil's  research focuses on the role of institutional investors in corporate governance and financial markets. He has published extensively in this area in leading journals such as the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, and Management Science. Professor Dasgupta currently leads a major UK Research and Innovation funded research programme based at the London School of Economics that investigates the stewardship role of institutional investors.

Kevin R. James (Economist and SRC Co-Investigator). Kevin's research focuses upon i) the relationship between financial market effectiveness, regulation, and economic performance; ii) economic and regulatory aspects of systemic risk; iii) corporate finance; and iv) the economics of fund management. His research on these topics has been published in leading finance and economic journals. He has previously worked at the Financial Conduct Authority, the Centre for Central Banking Studies at the Bank of England, the FSA, and the SEC. He has a PhD in Economics from UCLA and a BA from Swarthmore College.

Eva Micheler (Associate Professor in Law at LSE Law School and SRC Co-Investigator). Eva studied law at the University of Vienna and at the University of Oxford before joining the LSE Law Department in 2001. She holds the venia legendi from the University of Economics in Vienna. Her most recent book was published with Oxford University Press and is entitled, ‘Company Law – A Real Entity Theory’. 

C.K.G. Nair (Director of NISM and member of the FSLRC), Regulatory Architecture: Inadequate attention on 'second-order' structures

M.S. Sahoo (Distinguished Professor, National Law University, Delhi). Dr. Sahoo is an acclaimed thought leader in financial markets with four decades of professional experience. This includes two decades in regulation of markets and professions, as Chairperson, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), Member of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), Secretary of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Whole-time Member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and Economic Adviser with the National Stock Exchange of India Limited. As a Member of the Indian Economic Service, Dr. Sahoo has served several Ministries in the Government of India. He also had a brief but eventful legal practice. As founder Chairperson of the IBBI, Dr. Sahoo spearheaded insolvency reforms in the country. In the first three years of insolvency reforms, India’s rank improved from 136 to 52 in resolving the insolvency parameter of the World Banks’ Ease of Doing Business report. It was adjudged as the most improved jurisdiction in 2018 by the Global Restructuring Review.