The remorseless rise in regulation is seen as the main risk facing banks, according to the latest ‘Banana Skins’ survey from the London think tank CSFI. Regulation was described by many of the 440 bankers and observers from 54 countries surveyed as ‘out of control’ and ‘a serious threat’.
“Bankers have thrown down a challenge against too much prescriptive regulation. Many are worried that it is beginning to stifle innovation and judgement across the industry,” says John Hitchins, UK banking leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
While regulation has jumped to the top of the listing for the first time in its 10-year history other concerns have eased – macroeconomic trends have slipped from third to 10th place and business continuation from fifth to 19th. Fast-rising risks identified in this year’s poll are hedge funds (fifth), electronic fraud (sixth) and currency risk (seventh) due to the current weakness of the dollar.