View from City Road: Top supervision not tougher standards

The Institute of International Finance is right to argue that thick rulebooks policed by plodding banking and securities regulators will not stop a future disaster in the derivatives markets. But its solution of tightening up on voluntary reporting standards will not satisfy anyone.

The real need is not for detailed regulations but tough supervision, on the ground, by people who know the business and can keep up with the baffling speed of technical change.

They should not be central bank bureaucrats but poachers turned gamekeepers, recruited from senior levels and at market rates. That could mean the governor of the Bank of England will not be the highest paid official.