Mr. Alan Dukes:

Yes. To give an example, it has taken a long, long discussion in the United States to get something apparently simple like the Volcker rule implemented. I'm sure the Senator is familiar with this. It was decided I think four years ago and it only came into operation this year with great reluctance on the part of the banks. And I think that rule, if it were rigorously applied to banking systems through the world, would actually reduce the complexity of regulation because it just takes a whole area of activity away from the proper activities of investment banks.

That particular statement represents what I suppose you would call a prejudice about it. I've been looking at detailed regulation of various kinds since 1967 and I find both in various customs regulation, in tax law and in banking regulation, the more detailed the rules you have, the more the incentive is there and the more the opportunity is there to find a way around the rules. Now, detailed rules give rise to detailed avoidance procedures. Simple rules are much more easily implemented and I think, you know, there is a big discussion here around the question of what do we want the banking and financial system to do for the real economy. And I think the answer to that is something much simpler than they do today. So, let's have simple statements and simple rules.