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The economic secretary and City minister, joined by Interim ICFR chairman Mervyn Davies, said that the ICFR would be an industry-led project independent of the UK Government and would be officially launched at the end of the year.

The Centre, to be led by Barbara Ridpath as CEO, aims to become an international centre of excellence focused entirely on financial regulation.

More than £5 million in funding to support the Centre's establishment will be provided by 19 financial services firms and The City of London Corporation.

The department for innovation, universities and skills (DIUS) will also release the £2.5 million that the Government has committed to the project.

Strong support from across the City

The ICFR was first proposed by industry at a meeting of the Chancellor's high level group in 2006.

Since the publication of Lord Currie's prospectus for the Centre in May 2007, the development of the Centre has been led by an interim executive committee, chaired by Mervyn Davies, chairman of Standard Chartered Bank.

Ussher welcomed the strong support from across the City for the establishment of this new centre of excellence.

“As a world leader in financial services, it is important that Britain continues to be at the forefront of new developments in best practice in this sector,” she added.

Davies said that the City recognised several years ago that an international body was needed to promote cutting-edge training and research and added that recent events in financial markets underlined that this was the right time to launch."

Barbara Ridpath, confirmed as the Centre's CEO, is currently executive managing director and head of ratings services Europe at Standard and Poor's.

She said that the need for independent, objective research, thought leadership and training in the field of optimal financial regulation was becoming ever more apparent.

Global in scope

“It is important to provide this in a way that addresses the concerns of all market participants throughout the world, so as to ensure continued, open and vibrant capital markets,” she added.

In Budget 2006 the-then Chancellor Gordon Brown announced a commitment to work with the financial sector to establish a high level group of senior representatives from across the financial sector, to develop and support a new strategy to promote London as the leading international financial centre.

Based in the City of London, but truly global in scope, the ICFR will carry out and sponsor training and research into cutting-edge regulatory issues, support the development of new regulatory approaches and international standards, and organise debates on the key regulatory issues facing industry practitioners and national regulators alike.

Start funding 

The Government, industry and the City have reconfirmed their provision of start-up funding for the ICFR.

Barclays, Citigroup, Dresdner Kleinwort, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, Man Group, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Prudential, Standard Chartered, UBS, Aviva, Aberdeen Asset Management and 3i and have all agreed to provide start funding of £100,000 per year for three years for the ICFR.

A further £100,000 per year is provided by a consortium of Ernst and Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Deloitte.

The City of London Corporation have also pledged £1 million to the ICFR. It is intended that the ICFR will become self-funding after the initial set-up phase.

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Related links 

• HM Treasury