Standards Markets approach to regulation
"Standards Markets: The Free Market Response to Regulation?", Monday 16 October 2006 at 18:00, Barnard's Inn Hall, Holborn, London EC1
"Many societal goals for markets can be achieved with more innovative regulation using standards markets that seem to bridge the market-government divide. Standards markets, such as those based on the International Standards Organisation or the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling (ISEAL) Alliance, counter Screaming Lord Sutch's sublime question. "Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?"."
here live - http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=45&EventId=513
though this transcript may be easier to read - http://www.zyen.com/Activities/Events/Gresham%20College%208%20-%20Standards%20Markets%20The%20Free%20Market%20Response%20to%20Regulation%20v1.3%20-%20for%20email%20v1.0.pdf
picked up by Peter Day at the BBC for Radio 4 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/in-business/peter-days-comment/20100401/
Of course as a non-executive director of the United Kingdom Accreditation Service – www.ukas.com – all this is of great interest to me. My key principles might interest you (not exactly UKAS or ISO policy, a little more assertive): • there is an open standard available to all - many standards do not wholly fulfil this as they frequently charge significant fees for a copy of the standard, e.g. ISO affiliates such as the BSI typically charge three figures for short documents; • certification agencies compete for audit business – thus encouraging rational interpretation(s) of the standard and controlling cost and quality via reputational risk and competition, and the system can prove exclusion, e.g. certifiers actually mark down organisations that fail to meet the standard; • outputs such as certifications and grades awarded are published; ideally some benchmarking on the degree of pass or fail is given to participants; • ideally the certifier bears some indemnity and that indemnity can, with the price paid by the buyer, be made publicly available; • development of the standard is an open, structured, inclusive process involving interested stakeholders, conflicts of interest are eliminated and comparators available; • there is an authorised, responsible accrediting body for certification agencies, e.g. the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) or the Marine Stewardship Council in the case of sustainable fish, that helps to ensure proportionality and consistency; accreditors ensure the separation of standards development from the commercial elements of implementation and review; accreditors regulate the market; • accreditors can sanction certifiers, for instance ensuring that certification is separate from improvement, e.g. there are no conflicts of interest where firms sell consultancy services to attain a standard alongside certification services; • accreditation bodies are independent from commercial conformity assessment activities and, unless the system is seriously flawed, accreditation is probably best left to a sole entity, i.e. non-competitive.
Looking a bit wider, then and applying to financial services regulation:
http://www.zyen.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=245 - Michael Mainelli, "The Rules Of Practical Principles", Journal of Risk Finance, The Michael Mainelli Column, Volume 8, Number 5, pages 508-510, Emerald Group Publishing Limited (October 2007).
http://www.zyen.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=127 - Michael Mainelli, “Standard Differences: Differentiation Through Standardisation?” (ISO9001, SAS70 and management systems), Journal of Risk Finance, The Michael Mainelli Column, Volume 6, Number 1, pages 71-78, Emerald Group Publishing Limited (January 2005).
Ruth Deech has her regulating the regulators series too - http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/regulating-the-regulators
AS3806 inspired some of us and in 2009 we started, with Joanne Wallen of Complinet, a UK initiative that Complinet led which in turn led to BS8453. Still curious about ISO 22222 direction. We’re also helping the new FairBanking standard, www.fairbanking.org.uk, and there are some early stage standards on peer-to-peer credit with whom we chat. We touch on our thoughts of applying standards in finance as well in this paper:
Capacity, Trade and Credit: Emerging Architectures for Commerce and Money Michael Mainelli, Stephanie Rochford and Chiara von Gunten 2011 City of London Corporation, 203 pages
