Speech delivered at Alvarez & Marsal / Byrne Wallace Solicitors Seminar on Transforming Culture in Regulated Financial Services in Ireland

Both the Director General, Conduct Regulation, Derville Rowland [See Rowland, Derville. (2018) “Our culture assessments will analyse the leadership behaviour of management in banks”, speech European Consumer Protection Conference, March 22.] and the Deputy Governor, Prudential Regulation, Ed Sibley [See Sibley, Ed. (2017) "Is it legal? A Question of Culture", speech Eversheds Sutherland Conference, November 14.] have spoken recently about the culture of regulated firms in Ireland. Indeed, persistent conduct issues have prompted regulators worldwide to consider whether intrusive regulation, fines and compliance measures are sufficient if we are to deliver on our goal of requiring regulated firms to act in the best interests of consumers. Increasingly the international regulatory focus is on transforming the culture in the financial services sector [See, in particular, FSB (2017), Stocktake of efforts to strengthen governance frameworks to mitigate misconduct risks, May 2017.].

Today’s event has culture as its theme, in large part because the Central Bank is asking firms to focus on culture and naming culture as a cause of many of the regulatory problems we face.

The Central Bank has been to the forefront of developments in this space, introducing, for example, a framework for the assessment of culture in financial services firms which seeks to determine how those firms identify and manage consumer risk. We continue to work with other international supervisory bodies to influence and shape regulatory developments in this area at European and global level.