Gower power
t this point, those lunchers who are still
in the room will agree that your ques- tions are growing in urgency. The regula- tion of the City is becoming more formal, the framework of law more clearly defined around it The scheme of reform drafted by Professor Jim Gower will take that further. But if the law can be enforced only slowly or fitfully, reform may actually weaken the regulator's hand. Time was when a banker's bad behaviour would raise the Governor of the Bank of England's eyebrows and a thunderbolt would leave the miscreant frizzled on the pavement. Now the Bank has formal powers under a 1979 Act of Parliament — but, of course, formal limitations to those powers, too, and pro- cedures for appeal against its decisions. It takes time to remove the licence from a deposit-taker, and in that time money can continue to flow in with the Bank helpless even to warn, let alone to frizzle. And as for fraud, endless time and effort and resources go into a trial. The police are reluctant to mount a case, or the Director of Public Prosecutions to authorise a charge, on the mere off-chance of conviction. And how do they improve that chance, when the case is (or can readily be made) so complex and technical and protracted? The Fraud Squad has one practical answer. What it likes is a forgery. That is something physical to wave under a jury's nose — look, gentlemen, this is the stain of the ink-eradicator, here is where the prisoner squeezed in the extra noughts. But pity the prosecutor in a com- puter fraud . . . Look down the luncheon- table now, and if your luck is in, you will observe a distinguished figure, quietly tak- ing notes. He is Lord Roskill, the Law Lord; he has been set to answer your ques- tions, and he wants help.
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