An Interview with William Coen, Past-Secretary General, BCBS

A: One of the first things that comes to mind is the frequency of financial crises. Quite a bit of research has been conducted – in Basel, by central banks, the IMF, and others – suggesting that, on average, a financial crisis will occur somewhere in the world every seven years or so. With each financial crisis, whether or not it's global in scope, there is an element of deficient corporate governance involved. Sometimes, those deficiencies are so severe or pervasive that the crisis turns into a global event.