Balancing international public interest, market forces and popular opinion
ICAEW is pursuing an ambitious initiative to help shape a lasting legacy from the global financial crisis marked by the Lehman collapse in 2008. Between December 2010 and September 2011, ICAEW hosted four policy summits in New York, Brussels, Abu Dhabi and Singapore entitled Crisis Without a Legacy? In 2012 ICAEW is holding a second series of policy summits in London, Washington D.C., Brussels and Hong Kong.
New Thinking
The earlier summits considered three areas of potential change arising from the crisis: A New Global Order? A New Era for Financial Services? A New Role for Governments? Summit participants acknowledged successes but also identified the leadership challenges involved in developing a positive legacy.
ICAEW has drawn on insights from the summits to develop a framework for thinking about international public policy – a doctrine of triangulation – represented in a cut-out graphic and a PowerPoint animation. Triangulation refers to the need to balance three drivers of public policy: international public interest, market forces and popular opinion.
The triangulation doctrine provides a common basis for thinking about international public policy issues such as: managing the Eurozone crisis and restructuring sovereign debt; addressing public concerns about bankers’ remuneration: negotiating the international implications of the Dodd-Frank Act; re-energising international trade talks; internationalising the Chinese renminbi; promoting wider adoption of international standards; and seeing the immediate legislative and regulatory response to the crisis in a broader long-term context.
The 2012 summits
The four 2012 summits will follow the pattern of their four predecessors. Well-informed participants with a variety of experience and interests will engage in a half day of roundtable discussions around three themes which reflect the three drivers: Benevolent Globalisation, Responsible Finance and International Government. Learning how to resolve these tensions and restore faith in globalisation, finance and government is central to shaping a legacy from the global financial crisis. What is said will be summarised without attribution in a written synopsis.
Benefits
The summits will be positive and practical in tone and will provide a basis for developing a shared understanding of:
• the causes of the global financial crisis;
• how the crisis has unfolded and entered new phases;
• potential solutions from a wide range of international experience;
• international institutions that might need to be created or strengthened;
• how other potential global crises might be anticipated and prevented; and
• the key post-crisis challenges of leadership and trust highlighted by earlier summits.
Details of 2012 summits
London, Chartered Accountants' Hall - Monday 21 May - 8:30am to 12:00pm
Contact: Joel Spreadborough
Washington D.C., Russell Senate Office Building - Friday 22 June - 8:30 to 12:00pm
Contact: Ellen Bisnath
Brussels, venue to be confirmed - Wednesday 10 October - 2:00pm to 5:30pm
Contact: Jonatan Thompson
Hong Kong, venue, date and contact to be confirmed
Synopses of previous summits
For futher information on the Crisis Without a Legacy? initiative contact Sarah Buckley.