Global Head of Regulatory Intelligence Scott McCleskey discusses the launch of a new proprietary quarterly set of benchmarks (the TRust Index) that provide data and insight on the state of trust in financial institutions globally among the industry’s key constituencies.

Read the full story, “Is trust in financial institutions on the rebound?”

I had the opportunity last night to participate in a two-hour dinner discussion on the Euro Zone crisis, which Thomson Reuters sponsored along with The Atlantic. There were about twenty participants each with specific expertise and a great deal of experience in Europe (it seemed that about half of us all lived in Brussels at the same time). In addition to my Thomson Reuters colleagues Nick Collier (Global Head of Government Affairs) and Luke Baker (Brussels Bureau Chief for Reuters News), participants included diplomats from France, the European Commission and the Finnish ambassador, representatives from the IMF and the World Bank, and commentators from the press, academia and consulting firms. (more…)

This week we’re at the Washington Ideas Forum, of which we’re a proud underwriter. WIF brings together the country’s top journalists with the world’s most fascinating newsmakers for two days of enlightening interviews, spirited dialogue and working sessions on today’s most pressing policy issues. (more…)

Compliance professionals around the world report they are often struggling to keep up with the growing demands of global regulation, according to our newest Thomson Reuters Governance, Risk & Compliance survey.

We see that a combination of rapidly growing regulations and increasing responsibilities for compliance professionals, coupled with limited resources and constrained budgets, are raising concerns that compliance teams have reached saturation point in their ability to successfully manage compliance.

Our survey covered more than 500 compliance professionals at financial services companies around the world, including banks, insurers and fund managers. Among the key findings from the report:

• 84 percent of compliance professionals expect to handle more regulatory information in 2012
• More than a third of respondents spend an entire working day each week staying up-to-date with regulatory changes
• Only 11 percent of companies expect a significant increase in their budget for compliance this year

Compliance officers at regulated firms are finding themselves under increasing pressure from all sides. Companies need to be diligent, organized and pro-active in their approach to today’s fast-changing regulatory environment. However, our survey indicates that rather than gaining the upper hand in managing compliance functions, many companies are increasingly struggling to keep up.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded here.

As companies continue to expand and compete in the global marketplace, they are met with constant reminders of the importance of maintaining a robust global ethics & compliance program. The Global Ethics Summit will offer participants critical and timely insight into the risks and challenges of conducting business as well as best practices to mitigate the threats they pose.

The summit, which brings together CEOs, board chairs, governance, risk and compliance leaders, and government and regulatory officials, offers numerous sessions addressing the challenges of global compliance, emerging markets, supply chain compliance, government engagement, philanthropy and more.

Highlighted panelists at the 2012 conference today and tomorrow include:

• Lee D. Augsburger – senior vice president, chief ethics and compliance officer, Prudential Financial, Inc.
• Lanny Breuer – assistant attorney general, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice
• Brackett Denniston – senior vice president and general counsel, General Electric
• Jack Domme – chief executive officer, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS)
• Nancy J. Laben – senior vice president, Legal, and general counsel, AECOM Technology Corporation
• Doug Lankler – executive vice president, chief compliance and risk officer, Pfizer, Inc.
• William Lytton – former executive vice president and general counsel, Tyco International Ltd., and former vice president and general counsel, International Paper
• Sheila Penrose – chairman of the board, Jones Lang LaSalle, and board member, McDonald’s Corporation

Thomson Reuters Digital Editor Chrystia Freeland is moderating a keynote panel discussion on ethics and the executive suite. Scott McCleskey, Global Head of Financial Services Regulation for the Governance, Risk and Compliance business at Thomson Reuters is moderating sessions on heavily regulated industries and the evolution of the chief ethics and compliance officer role.

Follow along on Twitter at #GES2012

Additional information, including a complete agenda, is available here.

By Scott McCleskey, Thomson Reuters Global Head of Financial Services Regulation

Today, Thomson Reuters, along with the Atlantic Council, the Rotman School of Management, and The Embassy of Canada are hosting a special event, The Financial Crisis: Lessons Learned From Canada and The Way Forward.

Today’s discussion got to the heart of things right from the first panel, in which experts from government and industry from both sides of the border were asked to weigh in on why the Canadian financial sector fared so much better than the system in the US. One point stressed throughout the discussion was that the Canadians went through a severe fiscal crisis of their own in the 1990′s, and much of the conservative environment which helped the Canadian economy weather the financial storm in 2008 was created in response to their own earlier crisis.

Among the speakers to make this point was Michael Horgan, Deputy Minister of Finance for Canada. He attributed Canada’s relative success to three “fundamentals” they got right before the crisis as well as their response once the crisis was underway. On the fundamentals, he credited in particular the publicly stated commitment to a specific inflation target (2% with a 1% band) which allowed businesses and individuals to plan without worrying about runaway inflation; a sound financial system with conservative management practices (for instance, Canadian banks consistently held more and better quality capital than required by Basel standards or Canadian regulations); and a more conservative housing finance system – including fewer subprime mortgages and no mortgage-interest deduction which he asserted encourages homeowners to believe they can afford a higher payment than they truly can. The crucial aspect of the Canadian response, according to Mr. Horgan, was the decision to change Canadian law to permit the Bank of Canada to purchase mortgages and engage in other activities to provide liquidity to the banking system.

Throughout the day, credit for fixing the Canadian economy in the 90s and putting it on solid footing was universally given to former Prime Minister Rt. Honourable Paul Martin, P.C., who served as Finance Minister from 1993 to 2002 and Prime Minister from 2003 to 2006.  He was interviewed during the event’s lunch by Madelaine Drohan of The Economist, where he described the process of gaining political support within the government and from the public for painful reforms of the national pension system and the economy as a whole. Prime Minister Martin made the point that his effort was aided by the fact that the economies of Canada’s major trading partners were growing at the time, and so the situation facing the US and Europe now is substantially more difficult. He ended by emphasizing that worldwide economic recovery will require that key financial institutions, specifically the IMF and Financial Stability Board, be given broad authority to make changes where necessary.