What are the international financial regulators?

Financial Hot Topics --- Government Regulators

• Hi There ! I am working on a project, trying to forecast hot topics for government regulators over the next 5 years (2003-2008). Here's my list thus far: 1. NYSE Specialists---System Non-Competitive & Antiquated 2. Mutual Funds---Aftermarket Trading Scandal (cf. Putnam and Others) 3. Mutual Funds---No Independent Boards of Directors 4. Mutual Funds---Fees Going Up, Not Down 5. Hedge Funds----Lack of Government Oversight 6. Offshore-------Money Laundering by Terrorists/Drug Cartels 7. Offshore-------Avoidance of U.S. taxes by U.S. Companies 8. Derivatives----Market Meltdown (cf. 1987 Crash, Long Term Cap Mngt) 9. Corporate Governance----CEO Pay set by CEO cronies 10. Public Pensions----Underfunded 11. Private Pensions----Underfunded I need to expand my list from 11 one-line bullets to 25 one-line bullets. Please note: no background information or explanatory text is needed. I am at the earliest stage. I'm just brainstorming at this point. A 5-star answer would be 14 additional bullets. No web sites or supporting documentation necessary. Unusual ideas and "wild" (low probability) forecasts would be especially useful----would help me think "outside the box." Need this information by 7 PM (Pacific Standard Time) on November 13. All comments greatly appreciated. Thanks a million ! ron

• Answer:

  Great question. I spend a lot of time thinking about the role of corporations in the modern world, so this was right up my alley. You didn't specify the type of government regulators that you were focusing on, but your examples (and your question title) indicated the regulation of commerce and finance, rather than, say, environmental or health and safety regulations, so I stuck pretty much with the former. If any of these don't meet your needs for any reason, just let me know, and I'll root around and come up with a few more. Best.... pafalafa-ga ---------- 1. Corporate Governance -- Board of Director members spread too thin, wearing too many hats at once. 2. Annual Reports -- Failing to acknowledge the significance of environmental liabilities (e.g. Superfund sites) in Management Discussion and Analysis reporting. 3. Employee Funded Accounts -- Corporate raiding of ostensibly employee funds, especially retirement account deposits and pension funds. 4. Graft -- Pursuing overseas graft and bribery perpetrated by US companies through shadow "foreign" businesses and middlemen. 5. Taxes I -- Simplification of the tax code 6. Taxes II -- Regulatory distinctions between churches and businesses masquerading as churches 7. Corporate Charters -- Resurgence of state authority to regulate or limit corporate charters rather than simply rubber stamping them. 8. Fraud -- Validating pollution reductions associated with, e.g., carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide pollution trading credits. 9. Truth in Advertising I -- Broad scale push by the FTC to crack-down on misleading advertising. 10. Truth in Advertising II -- extension of FTC authority to false claims in emails/spam. 11. Stock Options -- appropriate valuation in corporate accounting 12. IPO's -- democratizing IPO's (Google's???) through lotteries and other mechanisms to include the little guy. 13. Health Care -- creating regulatory oversight for the economics of health care deliverers -- HMOs, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, etc. 14. Bizarro Instruments -- cracking down on bizarre derivative instruments that no human being can really understand (do you know what a Synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligation is...?). 15. Security -- increased reporting requirements for the nature and origin of imported goods coming into the U.S. 16. Transparency -- Basic rethinking of what information needs to be reported and how, in order to insure adequate shareholder knowledge about performance, and potential problems. That's my list, and now it's yours. No search strategy to speak of, except for searching the nooks, crannies and corners of my own mind.