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Monday 28 October 2013

Restoring Euro Area confidence

Adam Bennett (Senior Member, St Antony's College, Oxford)

In the second session of PEFM’s Michaelmas seminar series, on Monday, October 21, the spotlight shifted from UK banking reform to the problems of the Euro Area. Klaus Regling, Managing Director of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), gave a comprehensive presentation of how he saw progress towards restoring confidence in the Euro since the onset of the Euro Area crisis in 2009. Regling conceded that the various European authorities had perhaps not done the best job in reacting to the crisis—that many measures had been ad hoc and too late—but he insisted that there was and remains a coherent strategy. Moreover, he believed that this strategy was working.

Friday 18 October 2013

Banking reform five years on

Adam Bennett (Senior Member, St Antony's College, Oxford)

On Monday, October 14, PEFM’s Michaelmas term seminar series got off to a flying start with an extremely interesting presentation by Professor Sir John Vickers, Warden of All Souls College and former Chairman of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB).  Professor Vickers summarized and explained some of the key findings of the ICB (which were published in September 2011), elements of which have since been incorporated into the Financial Service (Banking Reform) Bill currently progressing through Parliament, and outlined the features of ongoing deliberations. While his presentation can be followed on PEFM’s forthcoming Podcast of the seminar, what follows is an attempt to extract the essence of his message.