Regulation descends into a Kafkaesque bureaucracy

The point of the regulatory process is lost if the end becomes planning and implementation for the sake of it

Monday 21 October 2013 at 17:00

If you were in any doubt about the volume and complexity of financial reform in Europe, just try typing “Esma work programme 2014” into Google and see what comes up.

Esma is the European Securities and Markets Authority and it has the unenviable task of translating what politicians say they want reformed in the European securities industry into workable technical regulations and then co-ordinating their implementation across nearly 30 jurisdictions across Europe.