Harper believes it is time for another inquiry
(7 August 2012 – Australia) Professor Ian Harper, one of the members of the original landmark Wallis inquiry believes a new look into Australia’s financial system is overdue.
Harper, considered one of the architects of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) told BusinessDay he would be prepared to consider refashioning it to hand responsibility for regulating banks back to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), if another inquiry was launched.
''We said on the very last page it only had a 10-year life and there would need to be another within 10 years - well, it's now been 15,'' he said.
''I am not suggesting that the whole financial system is broken, but it is clear the trajectory of its evolution has been different to that anticipated by Wallis and for which Australia's regulatory institutions were designed.''
Professor Harper, then at The University of Melbourne, is widely regarded as the author of the recommendation in the 1997 report that the regulation of banks be split between the Reserve Bank (which looked after stability of the financial system) and APRA (which oversaw the solvency of banks and other financial institutions).
He told BusinessDay he would now be prepared to consider ''killing his baby'' and decentralising bank regulation within the RBA.
''I am not advocating we re-establish the Reserve Bank as the sole regulator of banks, but I am advocating an examination of what is now needed. Britain has just decided to re-establish a single regulator of banks after re-examining its systems in the wake of the financial crisis.''
''We said on the very last page it only had a 10-year life and there would need to be another within 10 years - well, it's now been 15,'' he said.
''I am not suggesting that the whole financial system is broken, but it is clear the trajectory of its evolution has been different to that anticipated by Wallis and for which Australia's regulatory institutions were designed.''
Professor Harper, then at The University of Melbourne, is widely regarded as the author of the recommendation in the 1997 report that the regulation of banks be split between the Reserve Bank (which looked after stability of the financial system) and APRA (which oversaw the solvency of banks and other financial institutions).
He told BusinessDay he would now be prepared to consider ''killing his baby'' and decentralising bank regulation within the RBA.
''I am not advocating we re-establish the Reserve Bank as the sole regulator of banks, but I am advocating an examination of what is now needed. Britain has just decided to re-establish a single regulator of banks after re-examining its systems in the wake of the financial crisis.''
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