Culture change on the cards within corporate banking sector?

Regulators should take a greater role in overseeing company culture in the corporate and private banking sector.

This is the claim made by Hector Sands, chief executive of the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Speaking to the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, he expressed his belief that behavioural matters and cultures helped to bring about the recession and warned that irresponsible decisions are still being made.

Mr Sands suggested regulators identify unfavourable cultures, rather than define an acceptable one.

He recommended regulators look at the wider impact of a firm beyond its shareholders’ interests and stressed the need for firms such as corporate banking companies to ’contribute to the common good’.

The FSA is not funded by the government and is independent, but answers to the Treasury and Parliament. It receives funding from the firms that it oversees.

Its purpose and powers are set out in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.ADNFCR-2318-ID-19848262-ADNFCR