Poll: What Part of the Financial Ecosystem Is Most in Need of Attention?
Because CFA Institute launched its major, new multi-year effort “to help change finance for the greater good,” the Future of Finance, on Monday, we thought it was particularly timely to ask readers of the CFA Institute Financial NewsBrief which portions of the financial ecosystem need the most improvement.
Poll: What part of the financial ecosystem is most in need of attention?
In both NewsBrief regions, respondents believe that the top two issues facing the future of finance are “regulators need smarter — not more — regulation” and “financial intermediaries need to be more transparent about their conflicts of interest and other agency costs.”
In the global edition, greater emphasis (more than 44%) was placed on smarter regulation than on better intermediary transparency (more than 25%). About 36% of Asia-Pacific readers think conflicts of interest and agency costs at intermediaries is an important issue, and approximately 34% think regulators need less regulation.
CFA Institute holds the position that for the financial ecosystem to work, each major participant needs to accept responsibility for the ecosystem’s health. Therefore, it is interesting that in both regions, respondents think the investing public needs to be more involved and better educated regarding its investment decisions. Rankings were also the same for the two remaining categories: “public companies needing to implement better governance practices” trumped “analysts needing to practice more independent judgment.”
Please note that the content of this site should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute.
Interesting insight
Hello Biharilal,
Yes, I agree. I was surprised a bit by the results. I would have thought agency costs would have been the clear #1…but then that is why an actual poll helps to answer such questions.
Thank you for all of your loyal re-Tweets, Tweets, and other participation with CFA Institute!
With a big smile,
Jason