Previous Lectures and Debates

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Date: Wednesday 12 March 2008
Time: 3pm-5pm
Venue: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) Whitehall, London, SW1A 2ET

Financial institutions have extensive regulated responsibilities for preventing and detecting money laundering and the funding of terrorist activities. Similarly, agencies concerned with security of both infrastructure and personnel work with, and rely on, regulated aspects of organisations, such as internal control and risk management systems. At the heart of this growing intersection between the worlds of regulation and security, the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information is an important focus.

Our panel of experts will each explore, from their distinctive perspectives, the varied and changing relationships between information security, financial crime and regulation.

Discussing these issues will be:

The discussion will be chaired by Professor Michael Power, Research Theme Director, ESRC Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation, London School of Economics.

Pre-booking isn't required for the CARR session, but it would be helpful if you let the organisers know by emailing.

Directions to the venue are available at the RUSI website.

ESRC Festival of Social Science 07 Week Seminar

Date: Tuesday 13 March 2007
Time: 2pm-4pm
Venue: London School of Economics, Houghton Street WC2A 2AE (Tower 1, Theatre U8)

Calls for better regulation, less regulation and deregulation are widespread and commonly voiced in the media. Debates about regulation increasingly focus on red tape, burdens and costs. Regulation is popularly understood to impede productivity, reduce competitiveness, hamper innovation and challenge our freedoms. Yet there are also widespread calls for protection from risk, for compensation for harm, and for increased fairness and accountability in corporate and public life. How can these competing pressures be explained and reconciled? Is regulation costly? Or is it money well spent in the public interest? Can less be more? What does better regulation mean? How is it to be achieved? And for whom?

A panel of distinguished speakers will debate these issues and reflect on the nature of regulation: its costs, its benefits, and its place in modern society.

Discussing these issues will be:

Mr Philip Cullum - Deputy Chief Executive, National Consumer Council
Mr Matthew Fell - Head of Group Corporate Affairs, Confederation of British Industry
Mr Alexander Ehmann - Regulation and Enterprise Policy Adviser, Institute of Directors
Dr Colin Church - Director, Regulatory Innovation, Better Regulation Executive
Mr David Norgrove - Chairman, The Pensions Regulator

The discussion will be chaired by Professor Bridget Hutter, Director of CARR.

This event is free and open to all with no ticket required.

Opening the debate, Mike Power of CARR portrayed risk managers as "cosmetic, legalistic and concerned with appearances". In contrast, Reg Hinckley of BP thought the overall effect of risk managers was, on balance, positive. They had contributed to the quantification of risk, and had at least prompted the 'right sort' of boardroom discussions.

Avinash Persaud put the case differently: risk management wasn't working. Risk management should ensure that risks are distributed according to the ability to carry risks. In practice, risks are being transferred from those, such as banks, who can afford to take risks, to members of the public who cannot. Likewise, a 'one size fits all' mentality among risk managers had the perverse effect of destroying the diversity which successful risk management values, and increasing volatility.

A somewhat equivocal response was provided by Thierry Van Santen of Group Danone: the problem was the failure to distinguish between compliance and risk management. The job of the latter is to identify good and bad risks - since the company which takes no risks has no future.

A hand count of the audience suggested that the proponents had succeeding in convincing a majority that risk managers - the minority, perhaps? - were indeed dangerous.

Panel
Professor Avinash Persaud, Investment Director, GAM London Ltd,
Professor Mike Power, PD Leake Professor of Accounting and Co-Director, CARR,
Dr Reg Hinkley, Commercial Director, Integrated Supply and Trading, BP,
Thierry Van Santen, Corporate Risk Manager, Group Danone

Chair
Howard Davies, Director, LSE

Speaker: Piero Bassetti, President, Alta Scuola di Economia e Relazioni Internazionali (ASERI) and Fondazione Giannino Bassetti
Chair: Claudio Ciborra
Date: 14 May 2003
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Hong Kong Theatre

Abstract

A look at the issues that complicate innovative political or business decisions in a society of risk and uncertainty, using as examples the decisions taken by the Allianz insurance company after September 11 and the issue of the introduction of genetically modified organisms in a context such as the North of Italy.

Reflecting the interdisciplinary content of the subject, the academic events were co-sponsored by the ESRC Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR), the Department of Information Systems and the LSE Cities Programme.

Video footage of the discussion seminar held on 15 May 2003 is available from the Information Systems website.