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A well composed programme and a high quality of speakers set the framework of an interesting and very instructive annual sector conference of the confederation of Nordic finance unions, NFU.



Among the speakers was MEP and former Danish Prime Minister, Poul Nyrup Rasmusen, who made an indepth presentation on the current reforms of the financial regulation and an assessment of the initiatives presented so fare. He welcomed the Commission's recent openness to strengthening regulation in the sector, but was disappointed with the proposed regulation on hedge funds and private equity.



Sony Kapoor, a former investment banker and now managing director of the think tank Re-define, provided an interesting analysis of the situation offering some new perspectives. He underlined the importance of having trade unions on board in the reform process to gain from the experiences of employees in the sector. He furthermore stressed that we should not just ask for more regulation. It must be smart regulation and simple regulation, not to over-regulate and thereby paralyse the sector, but also because complex regulation is easier to circumvent.



NFU and UNI Finance President, Allan Bang, outlined the UNI Finance policies, activities and responses to the crisis. UNI Finance is trying to influence policy makers at all levels and to work to establish dialogue structures bewteen finance unions and relevant institutions to ensure information float in both directions. Finance workers can contribute with relevant experience that should be taken into account by supervisors and regulators.



Other speakers in this part of the programme were Lars Frisell from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, Marianne Dissing from the Danish Employers' Association for the Financial Sector and Max Otte, Professor of International Economics at Worms University of applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany, giving each their views and assessments of the development of the crisis and the measures to undertake.



On the second day, particpants to the conference were engaged in round table sessions to discuss the transnational cooperation between trade unions at company level, and the challenges related to the financial crisis. A panel with representatives from Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden and from both the Insurance and the Bank sector took the debate to a higher level in a panel debate at the podium.



The conference took place 11-12 June in Oslo.