Scotiabank's Waugh: banks can work with G7

By Paritosh Bansal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scotiabank Chief Executive Richard Waugh said on Friday the private sector can work with recommendations from a special study commissioned by the Group of Seven nations to prevent future financial crises, but it wants its suggestions heard as well.

"We should have some dialogue with the FSF, but we can work with some of them and hopefully they will work with us too with some our recommendations," Waugh told Reuters, referring to the group of central bankers and global regulators that compiled proposals for the G7.

Waugh was among a select group of bankers to attend a dinner on Friday with G7 finance officials at the U.S. Treasury Department. He co-chairs a Committee on Market Best Practices at the Institute of International Finance, a global banking group that issued its own recommendations earlier this week.

"On risk management practices, we agree we need to improve," Waugh said. "We are with them on the transparency issues. I think there is a lot of work that we can do there."

The report from the Financial Stability Forum offered a detailed assessment of the banking and regulatory failures that contributed to the market turmoil that has raged for eight months. It offered dozens of recommendations on how to shore up oversight and operations to prevent a recurrence.

"In certain areas that had been unregulated, we think some more guidance can be provided," Waugh said. "But I think in prescribed regulation, we are well-suited."

"And of course prescribed regulation hasn't helped in terms of mitigating past crises," Waugh said. "Best practices and principles do."

The G7 -- the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan -- said it strongly endorsed the FSF report.

G7 members, notably the United States and Canada, want to push bankers to match the vigor that global central banks have shown in battling the liquidity squeeze by urging these private-sector players to quickly put losses behind them and raise new capital.