Competition and Regulation: a Seamless Web?

Sir Callum McCarthy, Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, and Professor Mario Monti, the former European Competition Commissioner, were the key speakers at the latest in the Competition Commission’s (CC’s) occasional lecture series, which was held on Thursday 10 November.

The event was titled Competition and Regulation: a Seamless Web? and was chaired by Diana Guy, Deputy Chairman at the CC. Both Sir Callum and Professor Monti were able to give their unique perspectives on the subject, Sir Callum reflecting on how much easier it proved to reduce regulatory activity in energy markets during his previous position at Ofgem than in his current role with responsibility for financial services. Sir Callum went on to say that, despite his wish to reduce the amount of regulation in the financial services sector, there was ‘no magic bullet’ to enable this.

The debate was then opened to the floor, which featured an invited gathering of representatives from many of the CC’s regular contacts in the economic, business and legal sectors, as well as guests from other regulators and the government.

Mario Monti, the former European Competition Commissioner