UK financial services sector should join forces with Europe on future regulation

While Gordon Brown tries to rally support for a US-Anglo approach to reforming the world's financial services industry, Europe has already started working on its own solution

As hard as he might try, it looks as if Gordon Brown has already lost control of the debate on the future regulation of the world's financial services industries. His pleas to President Obama and the US Congress for a co-ordinated global response sound very fine but lack substance and, crucially, lack credibility. Most of the rest of the world is not looking to the UK or the United States for a lead in reforming the way financial markets and the firms that play in them are regulated for the simple reason they think the Anglo-US approach of the last 25 years has a lot to do with the mess...