WASHINGTON – Significant reforms to the US regulatory system are critically and urgently needed. The current system has significant weaknesses that, if not addressed, will continue to expose the nation’s financial system to serious risks, Gene Dodaro, acting US Comptroller General, told a Congressional committee in early February. He was giving testimony on the US financial regulatory system to the Senate Banking Committee. Several Congressional committees are currently working on regulatory reform plans, which may form the basis of legislation.

LONDON – Burned by both the collapse of investment bankers Lehman Brothers and the Icelandic banking system, Britain’s financial regulators look set to demand increased host-country powers to supervise local branches of foreign banks. This would go against the tide of recent years, both in the EU and globally, that has seen a move for greater supervisory oversight to be given to the home country where cross-border banks are headquartered. Although Britain has always been sceptical about this trend, cross-border banks have pressed for the home-supervisor approach in order to reduce their regulatory burden as they became more global. They wanted a single point of regulatory engagement.

WASHINGTON – America needs to reshape its regulatory system so that it’s not only adequate to cope with the risks seen in recent months, but also capable of identifying new sources of stress and provide the wherewithal to respond and contain them, according to the US Federal Reserve Board’s newest member.

LONDON – As America ponders adopting international accounting rules, the guardian of the integrity of the setter of those rules is enhancing its own public accountability by setting up a board to monitor its activities.

NEW YORK – Arnold Schilder, one of most experienced financial regulators on the international circuit, believes one of his first tasks as head of the body setting global auditing standards is to see how his work fits in with all the efforts underway to tackle the global financial crisis.

WASHINGTON – America’s new stock market watchdog, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Mary Schapiro believes controversial mark-to-market accounting was not a significant factor in the financial crisis. In so saying, she backs a recent SEC report produced under her predecessor, Christopher Cox.

WASHINGTON – Scott Polakoff, senior deputy director at the US Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), will take over as acting OTS director from the end of February when the current director, John Reich, steps down.

LONDON – Britain’s embattled financial regulators are struggling to find a successor to James Crosby as deputy chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Crosby quit the job in February amid allegations he’d fired a whistle-blower when he was chief executive of the now stricken HBOS banking group.

As the global financial crisis rolls on, the ‘only game in town’ for effective action seems to be the Group of Twenty. By David Keefe

SEC’s new boss wants to look again at the case for America adopting international accounting rules. Proponents are unfazed, but a comment deadline has been extended