Spotting the good guys in the influential world of regulation is not easy and in any case ‘good’ is entirely subjective – witness the revived debate on the Operating and Financial Review (OFR) and whether it should or should not be mandatory for listed ompanies. Likewise, the Payments Directive seems to reveal the European Commission in the role of good guy, standing up for the rights of users to get the best possible service from banks and from the new Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
The payment service providers, however, may not share that view. Standing back from the inevitable vested interests, the question is: what is best for the overall common good? The ACT prefers to avoid the use of regulation, or at any rate to make do with light touch regulation, but it is not always the case that regulation is bad and a hindrance. Reaching a voluntary consensus is preferable, but sometimes the regulators are the good guys.