We cannot afford inertia for other countries are quickly building modern e-economy. 1  A.Blinder “Fear of Offshoring”, CEPS Working Paper No. 119, December 2005. 2  This and many other examples are available in “The Word is Flat, A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Friedman published in 2005. 3  B. van Ark “Europe’s Productivity Gap: Catching Up or Getting Stuck?,” the article prepared for the International Symposium on Productivity, Competitiveness and Globalisation, Banque de France, Paris, November 4, 2005; R.McGuckin, M.Spiegelman, B. van Ark: The Retail Revolution - Can Europe Match U.S. Productivity Performance?,” The Conference Board, March 2005; and “Deepening the Lisbon Agenda, Studies on Productivity, Services, Technologies,” the report prepared by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economy of Austria, published in January 2006. 4  For instance, the report by A. T. Kearney’s consulting company “Offshore Location Attractiveness Index, Making Offshore Decisions” published in 2004. Three categories of indices were evaluated: the financial structure (labour, infrastructure, tax and regulation costs) with a weight of 40%, the skills and availability of employees (cumulated experience in business activities, ability to easily employ the staff, command of foreign languages and qualifications, social indices, e.g. the rate of unemployment) with a weight of 30%, business environment (state’s conditions, infrastructure, ability to adapt to differed cultures and the protection of intellectual property) with a weight of 30%.
As a regular attendee of TSC hearings I can assure you that we are already held very robustly to account for our activities – but I can see the point that some in Parliament have been making that if we do more rule-making, and with European Parliamentary scrutiny of rule-making no longer present, then we might be expected to do more to support Parliament in probing technical regulatory issues. Whatever Parliament decides on this, we look forward to engaging fully. International standards are another important safeguard. The UK has always been at the forefront of their development: with the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England was the driving force behind establishment of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and supplied its first chair. We remain fully committed to the development and implementation of international standards, and this applies as much in insurance as it does in banking. Actions speak louder than words – Dr Vicky Saporta, who runs prudential policy for the PRA, is also a very energetic and successful Chair of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors. There is also an increasingly lively debate around our objectives and ‘have regards’. As with accountability arrangements, it may well be sensible for these to evolve as our role changes. And we need to be wary of the natural tendency of regulators to become strongly attached to the objectives Parliament has currently set for them. But I would offer two notes of caution.