– John Kemp is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own –
By John Kemp
LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) – The UK Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) efforts to clean up the City of London have often seemed to owe a debt to Monty Python’s ineffectual Spanish Inquisition.
Until now, the round-up has been confined to a list of clueless bit players and departed has-beens, all marginal to the industry. It has inspired irritation more than fear or the determination to reform.
So today’s settlement with Johnny Cameron, former head of RBS Global Markets, effectively banning him from the industry except in a consulting capacity, marks something of a landmark for Britain’s famously ineffective market regulator.
It is the first acknowledgement that problems revealed during the last three years cannot be blamed on a few low-level bad apples.
