Forthrightness is Such a Bother

A troubling pattern is emerging in the conduct of the Financial Stability Board (FSB). About a month ago, the FSB reversed the impression it had previously given that the legal entity identifier would be ready for implementation in March 2013, stating it had only meant that the committees and groups should be established by then. If that was the case, the FSB should have said so in the first place, instead of cultivating confusion.

Then, this month, the FSB dropped a pair of abrupt short deadlines onto the industry: September 10 for legal comment or advice on LEI plans and September 22 for proposals concerning the operational system for the LEI. Oh, and by the way, even though legal experts would be doing the FSB a favor by responding at all on such short notice, let's remind them that anything they submit would be considered pro bono and they would receive no compensation for their work.

That arrogance continued with the FSB's statement concerning operations proposals, that anything submitted for presentation at the board's October meeting shouldn't be considered as having any sort of leg-up on actually being chosen. If that's the case, why should any service provider bother? Why is it worth anyone's time?

And here's the capper: asked who the chair or members of the LEI Implementation Committee are, for the mere purpose of locating a picture of someone to go with our reporting, Inside Reference Data was told that the group is too busy and can't be bothered. Again, an arrogant and unaccountable attitude, which furthers the impression that the FSB is making decisions in secret without communicating with anyone of relevance. Apparently, no-one's even allowed to know who is serving on the LEI Implementation Committee.

This isn't just one incident or one example—it's an ongoing dysfunction in anything of importance that the FSB is doing concerning the LEI. A board that doesn't explain itself or its rationale, or communicate about what it's doing or working on, when it comes to this important issue, can't be trusted.