By Mrs Sipho Makamba

It is now four years since the onset of the worst financial and economic crisis and the Great Depression. The crisis was an extraordinarily complex event with multiple causes. Weaknesses in the risk management practices of many financial firms, together with insufficient buffers of capital and liquidity, were clearly an important factor. The global economy and financial sector have now largely stabilised. The challenge remains, however, for global regulators to ensure that the drive to reform regulatory policies and practices is maintained. While the economies and financial sectors of many MEFMI members were not directly affected by first round effects of the crisis, the country supervisors must also take a hard look at the experience of the past few years and correct identified shortcomings in line with developments on the international arena.