Financial regulations: Boon or burden?

SMU Assistant Professor of Accounting Tharindra Ranasinghe studies financial regulatory systems around the world. He said that the value of financial regulation is a hotly debated topic not just in the big banks of Wall Street, but also in non-profit organisations. However, Assistant Prof Ranasinghe pointed out that a study on US unemployment insurance programmes showed that regulatory mechanisms are not always detrimental. He added that these unemployment schemes had unexpected benefits to shareholders and regulators, and that the “cushioning” effect of these schemes encouraged employees to be more truthful in disclosing what they knew about the company’s performance, thus leading to an improvement in the quality of the company’s financial reports. The study was conducted jointly with his fellow colleagues, Assistant Professor of Accounting Holly Yang and Associate Professor of Accounting Jeffrey Ng.