IBF Distinguished Speakers' Series 2008
With the Benefit of Hindsight: Lessons from the Credit Crisis for Banks, Regulators and Central Banks

The Institute of Banking and Finance held its Distinguished Speakers' Series 2008 on 10th November 2008 at the Shangri-la Hotel Singapore. One of IBF's signature events, the Distinguished Speaker Series provides a platform for financial sector leaders across different industry segments to exchange views, insights and experience and to participate in a dialogue with some of the world's leading thinkers. The vision is to look beyond sectoral boundaries to discuss key issues facing the financial industry.

This year, IBF welcomed Sir Howard Davies, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, former Chairman of the Financial Services Authority and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, to speak on the topic, "With The Benefit of Hindsight: Lessons from the credit crisis for banks, regulators and central banks". In his presentation, Sir Howard addressed the impact of the current credit crisis, the lessons learnt and how the leaders in financial institutions, central banks and regulators could work together to prevent and manage future credit crisis.

Sir Howard adopted a poetic stance when sharing his insights on the current credit crisis which he described as one that “even the gloomiest forecasts did not capture the scale of what it is today”. He summed up the whole saga of the five acts with the acronym S.L.U.M.P - Subprime, Liquidity problems, Unravelling of financial institutions, Meltdown of the industry and Pumping of liquidity into markets.

In the wake of this credit crisis, Sir Howard felt that there were five ways to fix the financial architecture of the global market, incorporating a global regulatory committee structure, putting in place simpler and more co-ordinated mechanisms to better reflect the shape of today’s markets, speeding up the implementation process of the next Basel system, establishing stronger links between macroeconomic surveillance and regulation, and last but not least, creating an environment with political leadership within the global economy.

In conjunction with the event, a group of distinguished senior practitioners in the industry was conferred the Financial Industry Certified Professional (FICP) status by IBF. The FICP title is the highest certification mark for a financial practitioner in Singapore under the FICS framework. Each of the distinguished individuals embodies professional competence and commitment to excellence, and serves as a beacon of excellence for our financial services industry.